ie>z\ 

LO? 


WIRE  NAIL  MAKING  IN  AMERICA 


BY 


FRANK  SOLON  LUNEY 

\ 

B.  S.  University  of  Illinois,  1907 


THESIS 

Submitted  in  Partial  Fulfillment  of  the  Requirements  for  the 

Degree  of 


MECHANICAL  ENGINEER 


IN 

THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


1921 





\^z\ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL 

May  16 _19®1_ 


I HEREBY  RECOMMEND  THAT  THE  THESIS  PREPARED  BY 

Frank  Solon  Luney 


entitled Wire  Nail  Making  in  America 


BE  ACCEPTED  AS  FULFILLING  THIS  PART  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR  THE 


PROFESSIONAL  DEGREE  OF 


Mechanical  Engineer 


Head  of  Department  of  Mechanical  Engineering 


4 if  : 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/wirenailmakinginOOIune 


TABLE  OF  COHTEHTS 


I.  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  HAIL  MAKING 

(aKHand  Making  of  Hails 1 

( b Y Material  for  Making  Hails 5 

(c)  Hail  Industry  in  England 5 

(d)  Hail  Industry  in  Colonial  America  7 

(e)  Economic  Value  of  the  nail  Industry 

to  the  Colonies 8 

(f)  Output  of  One  nailer 9 

(g)  Type  of  hammers  Used  by  j*ail  wake  rs 9 

(h)  Physical  Energy  Required  to  i-^ake  wails  ....  lu 

II.  THE  WIRE  MIL 

(a4  History  of  the  Wire  Hail  12 

\\sY  Early  Methods  of  Making 13 

(c)  Its  Introduction  into  America 14 

(d)  Its  Reception  by  the  Trade 15 

(e)  Ascendancy  Over  the  Cut  Hail 16 

( f } standard  Sizes  of  Common  Wire  Hails 19 

(gvKKind  of  Steel  Used 20 

III.  EARLY  HAIL  MAKING  MACHINES 

(a)  The  Slitting  Mill 22 

(b)  Plate  Hail  Machine 23 

(c)  French  Wire  Hail  Machine 25 

(d)  German  Wire  Hail  Machine . 26 

( e'Y  Fundamental  Features  of  All  Wire  Hail 

Machines  .....  27 

IV.  AMERICA!  WIRE  HAIL  MACHIHES 

(a)  Early  American  Inventions  29 

(b)  Trend  of  Inventions 30 

(c)Later  Types  of  Hail  Machines 33 

(d)  Performance  of  Various  Machines 34 

(e)  Operating  Difficulties  Encountered  36 

(f)  Material  Best  Adapted  for  Principal 

Machine  Parts  36 

V.  AMERICA!  WIRE  HAIL  INDUSTRY 

(a)  First  Wire  Hail  Factory 39 

(b)  Growth  of  the  Hail  Business 59 

(c)  Economic  Value  in  Its  Relation  to 

Wire  Business 40 

(d)  The  Hail  Combine  and  Its  Influence 42 


. 


- 

■ 


ii 


- TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  - CONT’D 


VI. 


VII. 


THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  COMMON  WIRE  ]*AILS 

(a)  The  Operating  Organization  of  anail  Mill  . . 

(b)  Trade  Demands  for  Common  nails  

(c)  Ordinary  Range  of  nail  machine  Sizes  . . . . 

fd)  Hind  of  Wire  Used  

( ej  Economic  Arrangement  of  machines  and  Drives. 

(f)  Tonnage  as  a Basis  of  Wage  Payment  

(g)  Advantage  of  Constant  Speed  . 

(h)  Power  Requirement  of  ±»ail  «iachines 

(i')  Trucking  of  Commodities 


. 47 
. 48 
. 49 
. 49 
. 50 
. 50 
. 51 


CLEANING  AND  POLISHING  x^AILS 
(a)  Importance  of  Cleaning  and  Polishing  nails  . . 52 


(b)  Nail  Tumblers 53 

(c)  Polishing  Material 54 

(d)  Time  Required  to  Clean 55 

(e)  Preventing  Bent  Nails  in  Cleaning 55 


PACKING  AND  STORING  NAILS 

(a)  Usual  Nail  Package 57 

(b)  Parallel  Packing  of  Nails  58 

(c)  Packing  Machinery 59 

(d)  Storage  of  Nail  Kegs 59 

(e)  The  Storage  of  Nails 60 


IX/  NAIL  LIES 

(a)  Kind  of  Steel  Best  Adapted 62 

(b)  Hardening  and  Tempering 63 

(c)  Economic  Utilization  of  Tool  Steel  Die 

Scrap 63 

(d)  Machinery  Required  63 


X.  DESIGN  AND  DESCRIPTION  OF  TYPICAL  NAIL  MILL 


(a)  Statement  of  Problem  .....  65 

(b)  Outline  of  Design 66 

(c)  Selection  of  Nail  Machines 67 

(d)  Building 68 

(e)  Nail  Machine  Drives 73 

(f)  Cleaning  and  Packing  Building  74 

(g)  Tumbler  Drives 75 

(h)  Sawdust  Storage 76 

(i)  Nail  Warehouse 77 


V 


, 


) • 


* 


iii 

- TAEIE  OF  COBTEUTS  - COBOL' D. 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

TABLE  I Standard  sizes  of  Common  Wire  nails  . . 19 

II  Range  of  "Brooklyn"  Machine  oizes  ...  47 

III  Bange  of  "Universal"  Machine  Sizes  . . 47 

IV  Bange  of  "national"  Machine  Sizes  ...  48 

V Bange  of  "Byers on-Glader " 1.3. chine 

Sizes 48 


LIST  OF  DRAWINGS 

PLATE  I General  Plan  of  Bail  Department  ....  78 

II  Detail  Plan  of  section  of  Bail  Mill  . . 79 

III  Detail  Plan  of  section  of  nail  Mill  . . 80 

IV  Sectional  Elevation  of  Bail  Mill 

and  Warehouse 81 

V Plan  of  Cleaning  and  Packing 

Department  82 

VI  Typical  Sectional  Elevation  of 

Cleaning  Building  83 

LIST  OF  PHOTOGRAPHS 

FIGURE  I no.  2 "National"  Hail  Machine 84 

II  ^national"  Hail  Forming  Mechanism  ...  85 

III  "Rational"  Cut  Levers 86 

IV  "national"  Radius  Links 87 

V "Ryerson-Glader"  nail  Machine  88 


- 


WIRE  MIL  MAKIJSG  IE  AMERICA 


I.  EARLY  HISTORY  OR  MIL  MAKIiSG . 

(a)  HARD  MAEIiiG  OR  MAILo.  At  just  what  time 
nails  were  first  used,  ia  an  unrecorded  event  in  history, 
altho  it  is  a well  known  fact  that  their  use  dates  back 
to  very  early  times.  Historic  evidence  of  the  use  of 
nails  is  strewn  all  along  the  pathway  of  civilization, 
mute  testimony  in  the  museums  of  modern  times  to  Man’s 
climb  from  the  days  of  ancient  history  to  those  of 
modern  civilization. 

When  Man  started  using  wood  for  construction 
purposes,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  invent  a method  of 
fastening  the  wood  in  his  structure.  The  first  fastening 
was  a wooden  pin,  from  which  in  time  was  evolved  the 
modern  nail.  The  evolution,  romantic  as  it  was,  has 
long  since  become  history  - some  of  which  is  recorded,  but 
most  of  which  is  not.  Perhaps,  because  a nail  has  always 
been  such  a common  article  and  so  familiar  to  everyone, 
the  historians  passed  it  by  unthinkingly. 

The  term  "nail"  calls  to  mind  a strip  of  metal, 
rather  pointed  at  one  end  and  with  possibly  a head  on  the 
other  end,  used  for  the  purpose  of  fastening  pieces  of 
material  together,  the  fastening  being  accomplished 


by  driving  the  atrip  into  the  material.  The  use  of 
nails  suggests  their  making  and  it  is  with  this  feature 
that  we  are  principally  concerned. 

Back:  of  all  worth  while  things,  there  is  usually 
an  incentive  for  the  producing  and  developing  of  them. 

In  the  majority  of  cases,  this  incentive  can  be  traced, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  commerce  in  which  the  article 
in  question  forms  a means  of  barter  and  exchange,  ouch 
is  the  case  with  nails.  The  demand  for  nails,  developing 
as  a.  consequence  of  their  adaptability  as  a building 
material,  was  the  incentive  for  their  making;  and,  as 
time  went  on  and  the  demand  increased  to  the  extent  where 
their  making  furnished  a living  for  the  maker,  nail  making 
became  a trade. 

And  so  it  is  that  the  art  of  making  nails  is  one 
of  the  oldest  trades  known  to  mankind.  The  art  is  so 
old,  in  fact,  that  its  origin  is  unknown.  However,  its 
antiquity  may  be  safely  charged  with  four  figures,  because 
nails  are  frequently  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  of 
the  Bible  as  being  made  of  gold,  silver,  brass  and  iron. 

The  art,  as  a whole,  attracted  a cosmopolitan 
following,  because  nails  were  used  and  made  in  varying 
quantities  by  every  civilized  country  on  earth  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  builders  and  their  artisans. 

In  the  olden  days,  before  machines  were  used, 
all  nails  were  hand  made  of  metal  and  it  is  natural  to 
suppose  that  nail  making  in  very  early  times  was  handi- 


(2) 


* 

, 

f 

. 

r 

. 


. 


, 


capped  by  the  non-production  of  suitable  metals.  Later 
on  as  the  demand  for  nails  increased , their  making  was, 
no  doubt,  a considerable  spur  to  the  increased  smelting 
of  more  suitable  metals,  notably  iron.  That  particu- 
lar attention  was  paid  to  the  trade  in  nail  stock  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  rods  of  suitable  shape  for 
nail  making  were  furnished  by  the  iron  manufacturers 
and  known  as  nail  rods.  These  rods  formed  an  important 
branch  of  the  early  iron  industry. 

As  time  went  on  and  the  European  Continent  became 
more  settled,  nail  making  became  permanently  establish- 
ed. Increased  ship  building  added  materially  to  the 
trading  in  nails.  The  demand  was  supplied  principally 
by  England,  Belguim,  Sweden,  and  Holland  and  to  a lessor 
degree  by  the  other  countries.  The  demand  for  nails 
grew  and  the  trade  grew  accordingly,  but  still  the 
method  of  production  remained  crude.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  this  was  before  the  days  of  any  except  the 
most  simple  sort  of  machinery. 

All  nails  then  produced  were  forged  by  hand  by  an 
artisan  known  as  a "nailer".  He  worked  before  a hearth 
invariably  located  in  his  own  home  where  all  members  of 
his  family,  both  male  and  female,  big  and  little,  took 
an  active  part  in  the  forging.  Sometimes  two  or  more 
nailers  shared  the  same  hearth  to  save  coal, but  this  was 
the  exception  rather  than  the  rule. 

The  growth  of  the  nailers  trade  very  early  made 


(3) 


■ 


, 

p 

lac 

. 

• . 


. 


necessary  an  attempt  to  standardize  the  nail  sizes  as 
an  aid  in  handling  the  nails  and  nail  stock  commercially. 
The  styles  of  the  nails  were  designated  by  terms  defin- 
ing their  use  such  as  "deck','  "flooring"  etc.  Each  style 
varied  in  thickness  and  length.  The  thickness  was  des- 
ignated as  "fine",  "barbed"  and  "strong",  while  the 
length  was  given  in  inches  and  the  weight  in  pounds  per 
one  thousand  nails.  Commercially  they  were  designated 
in  size  by  prefixing  a numeral  to  the  term  "penny". 

This  latter  term  is  a corruption  of "pun"  for  pound  and, 
during  the  days  of  hand  forged  nails,  it  indicated  the 
weight  in  pounds  of  one  thousand  nails  of  a given  size. 
For  example,  the  term  "Eight  Penny  Hails"  indicated  that 
one  thousand  nails  of  that  particular  size  weighed  eight 
pounds.  The  nomenclature  of  this  method  of  indicating 
nail  sizes  has  been  retained  somewhat  and  is  used  gen- 
erally to  the  present  day.  However,  the  significance, 
so  far  as  indicating  the  weight  of  any  definite  number 
of  either  wire  or  cut  nails  is  concerned,  has  been  en- 
tirely lost. 

The  statement  made  by  some  writers  that  the  term 
"penny"  refered  to  the  pennyweight  of  each  nail  of  a 
given  size  is  without  any  foundation  of  facts  to  support 
it  and  the  first  explanation  is  the  one  generally  con- 
ceded to  be  correct . 

The  trade  was  familiar  with  over  three  thousand 
different  sizes  and  shapes  of  nails. 


(4) 


■ 


' 


. 


. 


- 


' 


(b)  MATERIAL  FOR  MAK.IUG  EAIL3.  Wrought  iron 
was  the  material  which  was  generally  used  by  the  nailers 
for  making  the  hand-forged  nails  of  old.  Until  1855, 
when  the  Bessemer  process  of  making  steel  was  invented, 
wrought  iron  was  the  only  kind  of  malleable  ferrous 
metal  known,  except  the  better  grades  designated  as 
"blister"  and  'fcrucible " steels.  The  latter  two  were  a 
result  of  continued  refining  of  wrought  iron  from  which 
the  cinder  was  eliminated,  after  which  the  carbon  was 
incorporated.  As  far  as  common,  malleable  stock  was 
concerned,  wrought  iron  alone  was  known  and  held  a 
place  similar  to  the  low  carbon  steel  of  today. 

The  wrought  iron  nail  stock  was  supplied  from 
the  mills  in  the  form  of  bars,  called  nail  rods.  These 
rods  were  sold  in  bundles  and  could  be  procured  in 
various  cross-section  dimensions,  according  to  the  size 
of  the  nail  to  be  made.  This  fact  alone  saved  the  nailers 
a great  deal  of  work,  which  otherwise  would  have  been 
required  to  forge  the  nails  from  larger  stock. 

(c)  BAIL  IBDU3TRY  IB  EBGLABD.  In  England, 
Birmingham  was  the  center  of  the  nail  industry,  Just  as  it 
was  the  center  of  the  iron  industry.  By  the  middle  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century,  hearths  of  the  nailers  were  scattered 
for  miles  along  the  roads  of  the  entire  countryside 
around  Birmingham  and  one  could  not  travel  far  in  any 
direction  from  the  city  out  of  reach  of  the  sound 


(5) 


, 


of  the  nailers'  hammers. 


The  nails  were  made  under  the  domestic  system 
of  industry  and,  for  this  reason,  living  and  working 
conditions  among  the  nailers  were  very  unsatisfactory. 
The  employment  was  controlled  by  nail  roasters,  who  sup- 
plied the  nailers  with  the  nail  rods  and  paid  for  the 
work  done.  The  wages  paid  were  very  low,  purposely 
kept  so,  in  fact,  by  the  nail  masters.  It  was  necessary 
for  entire  families,  from  the  father  and  mother  down  to 
the  small  children  (both  boys  and  girls),  to  engage  in 
the  forging  of  the  nails,  for  which  they  would  receive 
only  enough  for  bare  subsistence.  Both  women  and 
children,  the  entire  family  in  fact,  worked  long  hours 
in  filthy  smithies  - located,  sometimes,  in  a shed 
attached  to  the  dwelling,  but,  in  the  majority  of  cases, 
in  their  veiy  homes. 

At  one  time,  60,000  people  were  so  employed 
under  the  nail  masters  in  the  Birmingham  district  alone, 
for  whom  200  tons  of  nail  rods  were  required  each  week. 

Because  of  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  nail 
rods,  other  than  through  the  nail  master,  it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  nailer  to  live  near  a producing'  center 
where  he  was  always  sure  of  his  supply  of  rods  and  also 
sure  of  a market  for  his  product.  There  were  a few 
nailers'  hearths  scattered  promiscuously  around  the 

country,  but  these  cared  only  for  a small  local  demand 
for  various  sized  nails  which  would  not  support  a regula 


. ■ 


•*:  mi 


■ 

- 


nail  maker’s  business. 

As  late  as  1886  the  hand  forging  of  nails  in  Eng- 
land was  still  an  extensive  industry,  altho  it  had  passed 
the  turning  point  of  its  importance  and  was  doomed  to  ex- 
tinction by  the  adoption  of  machine  made  mils.  The 
industry  had  lost  some  of  the  domestic  atmosphere  by  the 
nailers  having  been  grouped  in  shops  to  some  extent, 
altho  not  universally,  and  women  were  still  employed  in 
the  industry  just  as  their  ancesters  had  been  for  the 
past  £00  years. 

(d)  MIL  INDUSTRY  Iii  COLOEIAL  AMERICA.  The 
custom  of  nail  making  in  colonial  America  was  about  the 
same  as  that  in  England,  but  was  carried  on  in  a very 
limited  manner.  The  nailer  operated  his  hearth  in  his 
home,  located  close  to  the  seaport,  where  his  nail  stock 
was  most  easily  obtained.  The  iron  producing  centers 
were  very  small  and  fewer  in  number  than  in  England. 

In  colonial  days  most  of  the  nails  used  and  all 
of  the  nail  stock  were  imported  from  the  European  coun- 
tries, principally  England  or  at  any  rate  under  the  di- 
rection of  the  English  Crown. 

In  the  year  1731  there  wa3  officially  reported  to 
be  "One  slitting  mill  and  one  manufacture  for  nails"  in 
Massachusetts.  In  1750  there  were  only  four  slitting 
mills  in  the  same  colony.  All  of  these  mills  led  a 
rather  uncertain  existence  on  account  of  the  English 
jurisdiction  over  the  iron  production  in  reference  to 


(7) 


- 


- 


the  manufacture  of  nails.  It  was  not  until  during  the 
first  quarter  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  that  the  iron 
industry  in  America  was  in  any  but  the  most  primitive 
condition. 

Before  the  American  Revolutionary  War,  England 
had  imposed  such  restrictions  on  the  manufacture  of 
iron  that  very  few  furnaces  withstood  the  heavy  taxes 
imposed  on  them  and  their  success  was  looked  upon  with 
disfavor  by  the  English  iron  masters.  Luring  the  war 
and  immediately  thereafter,  the  manufacture  of  iron 
was  undertaken  most  earnestly  and  it  thrived  henceforth. 
Slitting  mills  and  nail  shops  were  started  generally 
throughout  the  States. 

(e)  ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  THE  NAIL  INDUSTRY  TO  THE 
COLONIES.  In  the  very  early  days  of  the  4merican 
Colonies,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  nails  were  made  at  all 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  There  were  no  iron  works 
of  any  consequence  so  all  the  material  would  have  had 
to  be  imported  for  the  work.  Just  when  nails  were  first 
forged  in  America  is  not  known,  but,  in  the  latter  days 
of  the  Colonies  just  previous  to  the  Revolutio nary  War, 
it  is  known  that  considerable  iron  was  turned  into  nails 
by  hand  - not  with  a view  of  exporting  any,  but  for 
Colonial  consumption  only. 

As  to  the  economic  value  of  nail  making  to  the 
Colonies,  the  trade  may  have  furnished  a livelihood  for 
a few  individuals;  but,  as  far  as  the  Colonies  themselves 


(8) 


„ 


ft 


, 


were  concerned,  it  waa  nil  and  was  made  so  by  the  con- 
ditions imposed  by  England  at  the  instance  of  the  English 
nail  master. 

After  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  chimney  corner 
industry  of  nail  making  was  undertaken  by  the  farmers  in 
order  to  have  work  for  the  long  winter  evenings;  but,  in 
1795,  it  received  a set-back  on  account  of  the  advent  of 
machine  made  nails.  After  this  time,  American  hand-forged 
nails,  always  a scarce  article,  were  a thing  of  the  past. 

In  England,  the  hand-forged  nails  thrived  for  a hundred 
years  longer  until  they  were  finally  driven  out  of  there 
by  the  machine  made  nail,  which  came  into  favor  sometime 
between  1985  and  1990. 

(f)  OUTPUT  OF  0I3E  1AILER.  Very  little  is  recorded 
which  gives  an  idea  of  the  daily  output  of  a single  nail 
maker.  A story  is  related  of  an  English  nailer,  presumedly 
operating  a hearth  near  Birmingham,  England,  who  made  a 
wager  that  he  could  forge  17,000  twenty-penny  (20)  wrought 
iron  nail3  per  week,  for  two  consecutive  weeks,  working 
ten  hours  a day.  It  is  stated  that  he  easily  won  the 
wager.  He  had  produced  680  pounds  of  nails  in  140  hours, 
or  about  five  pounds  per  hour.  A modern  nail  machine  on 
20d  nails  will  produce  about  325  pounds  of  nails  per 
hour,  or  a gain  of  320  pounds  per  hour  over  hand  forging. 

(g)  TYPE  OF  HAMPER  U3ED  BY  HAILERS.  The  nailers 
used  a special  hammer  with  a peculiarly  shaped  head  for 


(9) 


- 

. 


. 

. 

■ 


- 


making  hand  wrought  nails.  The  face  on  one  end  of  the 
head  was  slightly  beveled  toward  the  handle  and  this  was 
used  to  taper  the  nail  shank  as  the  nail  rod  was  held  on 
the  anvil.  The  other  end  of  the  hammer  head  was  cylin- 
drical, of  the  usual  ball  face,  and  was  used  to  form  the 
head  in  the  counterbore  of  the  nailer's  plate.  The  hammer 
head  weighed  about  two  pounds. 

(h)  PHYSICAL  EfiERGY  REQUIRED  TO  MAKE  MILS.  In 
making  each  nail,  the  nailer  performed  a cycle  of  operations 
about  as  follows.  The  nail  rod  was  first  heated  in  the 
forge,  and,  to  do  this,  the  nailer  had  to  operate  his  own 
bellows:  after  being  heated,  the  nail  rod  was  transferred 
to  the  anvil,  where  the  end  was  drawn  down  to  the  proper 
taper  with  a few  sharp  blows  of  the  hammer:  the  required 
length  of  rod  was  now  cut  off  to  gage  on  a chisel,  held  on 
the  anvil,  and  then,  if  still  hot  enough,  the  cut  and 
tapered  piece  of  nail  rod  was  dropped  point  first  into 
a "bore"  or  tapered  hole  in  the  anvil,  leaving  an  amount 
projecting  beyond  the  bore:  this  heated  and  projecting 
end  of  the  rod  was  now  hammered  into  the  proper  shaped 
counterbore,  thereby  forming  the  head  of  the  nail#  the 
finished  nail  was  now  driven  out  of  the  bore  and  the 
cycle  of  operations  repeated.  Raised  or  ornamental 
heads  were  formed  with  an  Oliver. 

It  has  been  estimated  by  one  writer  that  to  make 
one  20d  nail,  required  a total  of  about  twenty- five 


(10) 


' 


, 

’•  . t a:i  •■{  a«  , i i"’|  ■ 

■ 


strokes  of  a two  pound  hammer  raised  to  an  average 
height  of  three  feet  per  stroke.  To  make  one  thousand 
nails  at  that  rate  would  require  an  expenditure  of  energy- 
equal  to  150,000  foot-pounds  of  work  extended  over  a 
period  of  time  equal  to  about  eight  hours,  while  a mod- 
ern 20d  nail  machine  would  require  an  expenditure  of 
915,000  foot-pounds  of  work,  but  would  complete  the  one 
thousand  nails  in  about  six  minutes. 


■* 


- 

.. 


II.  THE  WIRE  MIL. 


(a)  HI3T0EY  OF  THE  WIRE  HAIL.  Like  that  of  its 
fore-runner,  the  wrought  nail,  the  origin  of  the  wire  nail 
is  clothed  in  obscurity  to  a considerable  degree.  France 
is,  without  doubt,  the  birthplace  of  the  wire  nail,  and, 
because  of  its  birthplace,  it  was  originally  known  as 
the  "French"  nail.  As  such,  it  is  occasionally  referred 
to  even  now. 

As  early  as  1750,  nails  were  made  by  hand  in 
France  from  cylindrical  wire  and  in  this  way  differed  from 
the  original  hand  wrought  nail,  which  was  made  from  a 
square  or  rectangular  wrought  iron  rod.  The  wire  nail  had 
a straight  shank,  while  the  wrought  nail  was  tapering. 

The  w'ire  used  in  the  making  of  the  French  nails  was  wrought 
iron,  or  some  othei  metal,  but  not  the  steel  with  which 
we  of  today  are  so  familiar.  The  art  of  making  wire  by 
hammering  metal  into  long,  cylindrical  rods  had  long  been 
known,  for  samples  of  brass  wire  have  been  found  in  the 
pyramids  of  Egypt.  The  Germans  started  to  draw  wire 
about  the  Fourteenth  Century.  Ho  attempt  was  made  to 
adapt  the  drawing  of  wire  to  any  other  commercial  enter- 
prise, so  the  art  remained  dormant.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  some  wire  did  get  into  France,  even  though 
no  attempt  was  made  on  the  part  of  Germany  to  export  it. 


(12) 


For  a considerable  space  of  timeFrance  was  the 
sole  producer  of  wire  nails,  but  they  were  made  of  very 
light  wire  and  only  for  home  consumption.  Bo  attempt 
was  made  to  commercialize  this  nail  altho  Belgium  and 
later  Germany  started  the  manufacture  of  wire  nails,  but 
on  a very  small  scale  and  by  hand  at  that. 

• I 

(b)  EARLY  METHODS  OF  MAXIBG.  The  method  employ- 
ed to  make  wire  nails  by  hand  was  much  more  simple  than 
that  used  to  make  hand  forged  nails.  The  wire  was  first 
cut  into  the  required  lengths,  and  then  one  end  of  each 
was  pointed  on  an  anvil.  The  pointed  piece  of  wire  was 
then  clamped  in  a vise  with  a portion  of  the  unsharpened 
end  projecting  above  the  vise  jaws,  which,  under  a few 
3harp  blows  of  a hammer,  formed  the  head  of  the  nail. 

The  simplicity  of  the  wire  nail  is  due  entirely  to  its 
having  a straight  shank  instead  of  a tapered  one  like 
that  of  the  forged  nail. 

Difficulty  was  encountered  in  the  making  of  these 
by  hand  and  this  difficulty  continued  long  after  mach- 
ines were  employed.  It  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
available  wire  did  not  readily  respond  to  the  attempt  to 
form  the  head,  but  the  remedy  came  after, the  manufacture 
of  3teel  became  more  flexible  as  a result  of  a better 
understanding  of  the  chemistry  of  steel  making.  The 
failure  0f  the  Bessemer  process  of  steel  making  to 
measure  up  to  the  expectations  of  the  inventor  was  due  to 
this  same  lack  of  knowledge.  This  fact  delayed  the  de- 

(13) 


, 

- 


velopment  of  the  steel  industry  several  years  and,  con- 
sequently, delayed  the  development  of  the  wire  nail 
industry. 

(c)  ITS  INTRODUCTION  INTO  AMERICA.  In  the 
middle  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  William  Eassel,  Sr. 
and  Thomas  Norton  of  New  York  were  engaged  in  the  business 
of  building  machinery.  About  1851  or  1852,  they  built  a 
machine  to  manufacture  dowel  and  hinge  pins  from  wire, 
thus  being  the  first  in  America  to  make  wire  nails.  This 
business  of  wire  hinge  pins  did  not  prosper,  so,  in  1857, 
Mr.  Eassel  bought  the  plant.  The  machines  were  shortly  put 
to  use  in  the  manufacture  of  French  wire  nails  of  small 
size  to  supply  the  needs  of  a German  picture-frame  maker, 
who  could  not  import  enough  wire  nails  to  supply  his 
shop.  He  preferred  the  wire  nails  because  they  did  not 
split  the  wood,  from  which  the  frames  were  made;  hence, 
the  arrangement  with  Hassel  for  the  manufacture  of  nails. 

Because  of  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  satisfac- 
tory wire,  the  business  lagged  though  it  continued  until 
about  1877.  Hassel  either  lacked  aggressiveness  or  did 
not  realize  the  possibilities  of  wire  nails;  at  any  rate, 
no  attempt  was  ma.de  to  increase  their  use  by  him. 

In  1875,  Father  Gobble,  a Catholic  priest,  came 
from  Germany  to  Covington,  Ky. , and  there,  associated 
with  Michael  Baaches,  started  the  Covington  Wire  Nail 
Works  for  the  manufacture  of  wire  nails.  Covington  was 


(14) 


' 


I 

, 

. 


chosen,  because  at  that  time  it  was  an  important  iron 
producing-  center.  This  effort,  limited  as  it  now  seems, 
was  the  first  concerted  attempt  to  introduce  wire  nails 
into  America  for  general  use.  The  next  year,  the  company 
exhibited  at  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia, 
which  did  much  to  familiarize  the  American  Public  with 
the  possibilities  of  wire  nails. 

The  Covington  factory,  after  a time,  was  a success 
and  is  still  making  nails,  although  the  name  and  the 
geographical  location  have  been  changed  several  times. 

Thus,  the  wire  nail  was  introduced  into  America  from  Europe, 
but  the  Americans  were  slow  to  adopt  it  generally. 

(d)  ITS  RECEPTION  BY  THE  TRADE.  The  trade  dealing 
in  nails  did  not  welcome  the  newcomer  in  the  field  of 
commerce  and  from  no  quarter  did  the  manufacturers  of 
wire  nails  in  Covington  receive  any  encouragement  whatever. 
They  early  realized  that  they  had  encountered,  and  must 
overcome,  a prejudice  against  the  smooth  shank  of  the 
wire  nail.  Every  one  was  used  to  the  more  rough  edge  of 
the  cut  nail,  which,  by  this  time,  had  superseded  the 
hand-forged  nail,  in  America  at  least.  For  the  purpose 
of  overcoming  this  prejudice  against  the  wire  nail  because 
of  its  smooth  shank,  barbed  nails  were  first  made  and  they 
succeeded,  in  a remarkable  degree,  in  overcoming  the  ob- 
jections. The  nails  weie  barbed  then,  as  now,  by  running 
the  wire  - before  the  nail  was  made  - between  two  marred 
grooved  rollers,  which  simply  roughed  the  wire. 


- 


. 

■ 


Barbing  the  wire  increased  the  holding  power 
considerably  over  the  aroooth  shank  and  formed  a stepping 
stone  for  the  successful  application  of  the  wire  nail 
in  America. 

(e)  AoCEilDAilCY  OVER  THE  CUT  ilAIL.  The  ha  nd  - 
forged  nail  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  was  superseded  in 
the  early  half  of  the  next  century  by  the  advent  of  a 
nail  cut,  by  machine,  from  wrought  iron  plate.  By  1840, 
both  forged  and  cut  nails  were  commonly  used,  but  in 
America  the  machine  nail  always  took  the  lead.  After 
the  advent  of  the  first  nail  machines,  their  product, 
the  cut  nail,  held  first  place  until  the  last  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  Century  when  the  wire  nail  began  to 
make  its  presence  felt.  In  1888,  plate  cut  nails  first 
noticed  the  inroads  being  made  in  their  business  by  the 
wire  nails.  In  this  year,  one-fifth  of  the  total  nail 
output  was  of  wire.  By  the  year  1895,  three-quarters 
of  the  total  output  of  nails  was  of  wire. 

For  same  time  the  use  of  the  latter  type  of  nail 
was  regarded  as  harboring  trouble  for  the  user.  There 
are  still  a few  adherents  to  this  belief,  but  their 
numbers  are  fast  dwindling.  The  use  of  the  wire  nail 
in  engineering  enterprises  and  in  commerce  is  one  of 
undisputed  importance. 

Because  it  is  made  of  wire  and  because,  in  the 
process  of  making  wire,  the  rods  are  pickled  in  a solution 


(16) 


' 


. 


, 

' 

, 


, 


■ 


■ 


, 


of  dilute  sulphuric  acid  to  remove  the  scale,  the 
objection  has  been  raised  that  the  wire  nail  will  not 
weather,  but  will  be  eaten  off  by  the  acid.  This  assump- 
tion is  not  just  right . 

As  a preliminary  operation  in  the  manufacture  of 
wire,  the  rods,  after  they  come  from  the  rolling  mill, 
are  pickled  in  a sulphuric  acid  bath  to  remove  the  scale. 
From  the  acid,  they  are  plunged  into  a bath  of  clear 
water  to  stop  the  action  and  remove  the  acid  from  the 
rods.  From  this  water  bath,  the  rods  are  placed  on  a 
rack  to  "sull".  The  sull  is  a dark  green  oxide  which 
forms  on  the  warm  and  damp,  but  clean,  iron  surface  of 
the  reds.  After  sulling  sufficiently  in  a fine  spray 
of  water,  the  rods  are  immersed  in  a hot,  milky,  lime 
water  bath;  then,  with  the  sull  and  lime  still  adheriug 
to  their  surface,  the  rods  are  placed  in  a dry  house  to 
bake  at  a temperature  ranging  from  to  300  to  400  degrees 
Fahrenheit.  After  this,  the  rods  are  ready  to  draw. 

The  sail  and  lime  coating,  along  with  either  a heavy 
grease  or  hard  soap  through  which  the  rods  pass  previously 
to  entering  the  drawing  die,  forms  a lubricant  which 
remains  on  the  wire  for  several  drafts.  A better  material, 
for  a.  lime  substitute,  has  never  been  found,  but  the  lime 
so  used  must  be  free  from  grit  . If  the  baking  in  the 
dryhouse  is  done  at  too  low  a temperature,  the  wire 
will  be  "acid  brittle"  and  break  too  often  to  permit 
economical  drawing.  Then,  the  wire  must  be  rebaked. 


(1?) 


r • 


" 


, 


' 


« 


XI 


It  is  the  baking,  and  not  the  lime  as  is  generally  sup- 
posed, that  kills  the  acid.  We  are  assured  of  v/ire  nails 
being  made  of  acid-killed  wire  if  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  no  v/ire  can  be  drawn  successfully,  from  which  the 
acid  has  not  been  eliminated  by  baking. 

Polished  steel  wire  nails,  the  ones  usually  en- 
countered, do  rust  rapidly  v/hen  exposed  to  damp  air.  The 
rusting  occurs,  not  because  acid  is  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  the  wire  but  because  the  nails  are  of  steel.  Common 
soft  steel  is  characterised  by  excessive  rusting  under 
some  conditions,  which  is  not  true  of  wrought  iron. 

The  Bessemer  process  of  steel  manufacture,  invented 
in  1855,  increased  the  output  of  steel  wire,  which,  on 
account  of  its  being  cheaper,  gradually  crowded  the  wrought 
iron  off  the  market.  The  greatest  impetus  came  in  1878, 
v/hen  the  Bessemer  process  was  still  further  rerfeeted  by 
the  Thomas-Gilcrist  method  of  using  a basic  lining'  - 
thereby  producing  the  basic  Bessemer  steel. 

This  latter  invention  was  brought  out  three  years 
after  the  establishment  of  the  manufacture  of  wire  nails 
in  America,  so,  naturally,  the  manufacture  of  wire  nails 
increased  with  the  increase  in  production  of  Bessener 
steel  wire. 

The  Thomas-Gilcrist  or  basic  Bessemer  process  of 
steel  purification  is  not  applicable  to  the  general  run 
of  iron  ores  found  in  the  United  States.  For  that 
reason,  it  has  been  discarded  in  this  country  for  the 
acid  Bessemer  process  and  the  basic  open  hearth  pro- 

■ Mr) 


. 

, 


- 

, 


cess,  both  admirably  adapted  to  the  American  ores. 

(f)  STANDARD  SIZES  OF  COiiMOU  WIRE  MILS.  The 
manufacturers  and  users  of  wire  nails  have  long  since 
agreed  to  certain  standard  dimensions  of  wire  nails  and 
the  following  table  gives  the  sizes  standard  for  common 
nails  only.  The  various  styles  of  wire  nails  have  been 
standardized  in  like  manner.  The  weights  given  in  the 
table  are  those  used  by  the  largest  manufacturers  of 
wire  nail3,  but  are  subject  to  slight  variation  , unavoid- 
able thru  the  adjustment  of  the  machines.  The  variation 
will  not  amount  to  over  l/4  of  1$. 


TABLE  1. 


MIL 

HEAD 

LEHGTH 

WIRE 

APPROX. 

WEIGHT 

SIZE 

LIAM. 

IECHES 

GAGE 

M0.1  LB 

PER  1000 

2d 

5/32 

1 

15 

876 

1.15 

3d 

3/16 

1-1/4 

14 

568 

1.3 

4d 

1/4 

1-1/2 

12-1/2 

316 

3.3 

5d 

1/4 

1-3/4 

12-1/2 

271 

3.7 

6d 

2 

11-1/2 

181 

5.5 

7d 

2-1/4 

11-1/2 

161 

6.2 

8d 

9/32 

2-1/2 

10-1/4 

106 

9.4 

9d 

9/32 

2-3/4 

10-1/4 

96 

10.4 

lOd 

5/16 

3 

9 

69 

14.5 

12d 

5/16 

3-1/4 

9 

63 

15.9 

16d 

11/32 

3-1/2 

8 

49 

20.5 

20d 

13/32 

4 

6 

31 

32.3 

30d 

7/16 

4-1/2 

5 

24 

41.6 

40d 

15/32 

5 

4 

18 

55  • 6 

50d 

1/2 

5-1/2 

3 

14 

71.5 

60d 

17/32 

6 

2 

11 

91.0 

The  wire  gage  referred  to  is  the  one  now  known 
as  the  "Steel  Wire  Gage "( formerly  known  as  the  "Washbarn 
and  Moen  Gage")  and  in  this  country  generally  used  by 
all  steel  manufacturers  tho  under  various  names.  Upon 


(19) 


- 


- 


- 


the  recommendation  of  the  Bureau  of  Standards,  Washington, 
D.C.,  a number  of  the  important  steel  wire  makers  and 
consumers  agreed  to  the  designation  of  this  gage  as  the 
"Steel  Wire  Gage".  Thus  it  has  official  sanction,  but  no 
legal  standing  by  any  act  of  Congress. 

(g)  KIUD  OF  STEEL  USED.  When  wire  nails  were 
first  being  made  by  hand,  the  only  ferrous  metal  wire 
known  was  that  made  of  wrought  iron.  This  continued  to 
be  the  case  for  some  time  after  the  advent  of  wire  nail 
machines  in  this  countiy,  which  was  also  about  the  time 
of  the  Thoraas-Gilcrist  improvement  in  the  manufacture 
of  Bessemer  steel.  This  improvement  gave  such  an  impetus 
to  the  manufacture  of  mild  steel  that  wrought  iron  could 
not  long  compete  in  price  and  w as  soon  to  disappear  so 
far  as  the  manufacture  of  wire  was  concerned. 

Shortly  after  1880,  several  manufacturers  were  in 
the  business  of  making  wire  nails.  They  early  realized 
the  change  that  was  about  to  take  place  by  substituting 
steel  wire  for  wrought  iron  wire  for  makihg  nails.  But 
the  decided  preference  for  wrought  iron  wire,  adhered  to 
not  alone  by  their  customers  but  their  own  nail  makers 
as  well,  was  hard  for  the  manufacturers  to  overcome 
because  of  the  difficulty  encountered  in  making  the 
nail  head  with  Bessemer  steel.  Swedes  iron  seems  to  have 
been  the  favorite  with  all.  The  H.  P.  Uail  Company  of 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  which  is  at  present  (1921)  one  of  the 
largest  nail  mills  in  the  United  States,  was  the  first 

( 20) 


' 

. 


to  succeed  in  using  Bessemer  steel  wire  for  nails.  Their 
example  was  soon  followed  by  all  the  other  manufacturers 
of  wire  nails  - not  from  choice,  but  from  necessity. 

The  first  United  Btates  decennial  census  to  show 
a decrease  in  the  wrought  iron  manufactured  was  that  of 
1890,  thirty- five  years  after  Bessemer's  invention. 

Wire  nails  are  no?/  made,  for  the  most  part,  of 
Bessemer  steel  wire,  unless  the  nails  are  to  conform  to 
some  special  requirement  of  the  user  which  cannot  be 
complied  with  by  using  Bessemer  stock}  such,  for  example, 
as  the  heads  of  l/2"  and  5/8"  in  diameter  formed  on 
roofing  nails.  In  forming  these  large  heads,  the  Bessemer 
steel  splits  around  the  circumference  of  the  heads. 

These  specifications  usually  require  the  use  of  some 
slightly  better  grade  of  steel.  Either  the  basic  open 
hearth  or  the  duplex  steel  is  used.  The  duplex  steel 
refers  to  a combination  of  the  acid  Bessemer  and  the 
basic  open  hearth  processes.  The  advantage  of  the  duplex 
process  of  steel  manufacture  lies  in  the  increased  tonnage 
which  it  pro  duces,  in  a given  time,  over  that  of  the 
open  hearth  process.  The  product  is  similar  to  and 
equal  in  quality  to  the  steel  produced  by  the  open  hearth 
process  alone. 


(21) 


> 

. ' 


III.  EARLY  MIL  MAKING  MACHINES. 


(a)  THE  SLITTING  MILL.  When  nail  rods  were 
first  produced,  from  which  hand  forged  nails  were  made, 
they  were  hammered  to  size  by  water  power.  In  1617, 

Sir  L.  Bulmer  of  England  devised  a machine  for  cutting 
nail  rods,  but,  aside  from  devising  a simple  mechanism, 
he  did  nothing  more  with  it.  In  1784,  Henry  Cort  of  Eng- 
land was  granted  a patent  fora  rollii£  mill  for  producing 
bars  in  grooved  rollers.  This  method  was  slow  and  the 
practice,  except  for  the  finest  grades  of  nails,  was  dis- 
carded for  the  cheaper  method  of  the  slitting  mill.  In 
this  mill,  wrought  iron  plate  (already  rolled  to  the  re- 
quired thickness)  was  introduced  between  gangs  of  op- 
posing rolls,  consisting  of  hard  crucible  steel  discs,  so 
spaced  on  two  parallel  power  driven  shafts  that  the  result 
ing  slit  bars  would  be  of  the  sizes  required  by  the 
nailers.  Thesd  bars  from  the  slitting  mill  bore  the 
characteristic  rough  sheared  edge  which  was  so  much  de- 
sired by  the  nailers,  on  account  of  the  popular  belief 
that  the  holding  power  of  a nail  was  thus  considerably 
increased . 

The  slitting  mill  is  a subject  to  which  there  is 
attached  considerable  uncertainty  as  to  its  origin,  altho 
generally  considered  as  having  originated  in  one  of  two 
countries  - either  Holland  or  Sweden.  From  there 

U£  i 


■ 

( 

* 


the  idea  was  brought  to  England  by  an  English  mechanic 
by  the  name  of  Foley,  who  purposely  visited  the  foreign 
iron  works  where  slitting  mills  were  in  successful 
operation.  There  he  gained  admission  to  the  works  by 
posing  as  a wandering  musician.  Ee  obtained  the  coveted 
information  regarding  the  slitting  mill  and  returned  to 
England,  where  he  put  the  idea  into  practice.  His 
stolen  secret,  whether  of  Dutch  or  owedish  origin,  was 
the  means  of  increasing  to  a very  considerable  degree 
the  production  of  nail  making  material  - not  alone  in 
England,  but  in  the  United  otates  as  well. 

(b)  PLATE  MIL  MACHINE.  The  invention  of  nail 
making-  machines,  as  well  as  their  successful  evolution, 
is  due  to  American  ingenuity  and  in  no  country  has  the 
development  of  the  nail  machine  kept  pace  with  that  of 
the  American  builders. 

Very  little  hand  forging-  of  nails  was  ever 
carried  on  in  this  country.  For  this,  we  have  England 
to  thank,  altho  her  attitude  in  the  matter  of  Colonial 
nail  making  was  not  prompted  by  beneficent  intentions. 
Eefore  the  Revolutionary  War,  England  would  allow  only 
a small  amount  of  nails  to  be  made  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic  - all  because  of  the  short-sightedness  of  the 
English  nail  masters,  who  prevailed  upon  the  government 
to  place  such  unjust  restrictions  upon  the  business 
that  it  never  had  so  much  as  a good  start  in  any  of 
the  Colonies. 


(23) 


, 

, 

* 


, 


- , ■ ' * 


Immediately  after  the  Revolut ionary  War,  a great 
number  of  hand  forged  nail  shops  opened  up  and  the 
American  inventor  started  to  build  machines  to  take  the 

\ 

drudgery  out  of  hand  nail  making-  Notable  among  the 
inventions  patented  in  the  early  days  is  that  of  Jacob 
Perkins,  shortly  before  1795-  While  it  was  not  a success 
in  all  particulars,  it  made  the  hand  forging  of  nails 
by  the  Massachusetts  farmers  an  unprofitable  undertaking. 

On  March  £3,  1795,  a patent  was  issued  to 
Josiah  Pierson  of  new  York  on  what  was  the  first  really 
successful  machine  so  far  invented.  This  style  of 
machine  was  in  use  at  least  until  1830. 

Nearly  all  of  the  early  patents  were  issued  to 
residents  o f Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  which  states, 
for  some  time  to  come,  were  to  be  the  center  of  the  nail 
industry. 

The  characteristic  feature  of  the  old,  hand 
forged  nails  was  the  long  and  comparat ively  tapering 
shank  and  it  is  to  be  expected  that  this  main  feature 
would  obtain  in  the  product  of  the  first  machines  to 
make  cut  nails.  Ouch  was  the  case. 

The  first  inventor  to  obtain  an  American  patent 
on  a nail  machine  was  Ezekiel  Reed  of  Bridgewater,  Mass., 
in  1786.  A little  later,  in  1790,  an  English  patent  for 
a cut  nail  machine  was  issued  to  an  English  inventor 
by  the  name  of  Jlohn  Clifford.  These  two  machines  were 
fundamentally  alike.  The  nail  stock  used  was  wrought 

(24) 


. 


r 


iron  plate,  furnished  by  the  rolling  mills  in  sheets  cut 
about  one  foot  long  and  of  a width  corresponding  to  the 
length  of  the  nail  to  be  cut.  The  taper  of  the  longer 
nails  was  obtained  by  rolling  the  plates  to  a wedge-shaped 
section.  The  taper  of  the  smaller  nails  was  obtained  by 
cutting  the  plate  obliquely  and  turning  it  over  each  time 
a nail  was  cut . 

The  nail  stock  was  heated  to  a very  dull  red, 
then  fed  by  hand  into  the  machine.  The  nail  was  first 
sheared  off  and  the  blank  dropped  into  a gripper,  which 
held  the  nail  fast  until  a heading  die  advanced  and 
formed  the  head.  The  finished  nail  was  dropped  down  a 
chute  and  the  cycle  repeated. 

Machines  of  this  type  were  in  operation  as  late 
as  1360  in  the  plant  of  the  East  Jersey  Iron  Manufacturing 
Company,  Boonton,  n.J. 

(c)  FREMCH.  WIRE  BAIL  MACHINE.  The  first  wire 
nail  machine  to  be  imported  into  this  country  came  from 
France  about  the  year  1875.  It  was  imported  by  the 
American  Wire  L Screw  Sail  Company,  Covington,  Ey.  This 
company  had  started  the  same  year  to  make  wire  nails  by 
hand.  A few  machines  had  been  made  in  this  country  for 
the  manufacture  of  wire  nails  before  this  time. 

In  this  French  machine,  the  head  of  the  nail  was 
formed  by  a heading  die,  carried  on  a crosshead  or  hammer. 
The  crosshead  was  actuated  £y  a long,  flat,  vertical  wood 
leaf  spring,  the  top  end  of  which  was  secured  in  the 


(£5) 


' 

1 

. 


. . 


ceiling,  while  the  bottom  end  projected  down  into  the 
machine  and  engaged  the  crosshead.  A cam  on  the  main 
shaft  of  the  machine  sprung  the  wood  board,  the  release 
of  which  produced  the  blow  of  the  heading  hammer  which 
formed  the  nail  head.  The  wire  was  then  fed  into  the 
machine  the  proper  length,  cut  off  and  pointed  in  the 
same  operation.  A number  of  this  spring  board  type  of 
wire  nail  machines  are  still  in  operation  in  the  United 
States.  All  types  of  wrire  nail  machines  mate  noise, 
but,  of  all  types,  the  French  spring  board  machines  are 
the  noisiest. 

(d)  GERMAN  WIRE  MIL  MACHINE.  In  the  German 
nail  machine,  the  wood  spring  is  present  also,  as  it  is 
in  nearly  all  the  early  European  models.  The  wire  is  fed 
into  the  machine  int ermittingly  from  a coil.  The  nail 
head  is  formed  by  a heading  die  carried  in  a crosshead, 
the  latter  being  operated  by  a spring.  The  heading  blow 
is  quite  as  sharp  as  it  is  on  the  French  machine  and  just 
as  effective.  One  nail  is  made  for  each  revolution  of 
the  machine.  This  type  of  machine  is  no  more  desirable 
from  an  operating  standpoint  than  the  cumbersome  French 
machine . 

Several  types  of  machines  of  German  invention  are 
still  seen  in  operation  in  American  nail  mills  and  their 
good  features  have  been  adopted  considerably  in  other  nail 
machines.  The  spring  type  of  machine  is  used  now  to 
a great  extent  for  making  large  headed  nails,  although 


- • - ■•  • • 


, . 


, 

, 

i n. 


the  "national"  machine  will  make  nails  with  heads  just 
as  heavy. 

(e)  FUNDAMENTAL  FEATURES  OF  ALL  WIRE  NAIL 
MACHINES.  In  a general  way,  all  wire  noil  making  machines, 
while  of  widely  varying  types  and  with  parts  variously 
arranged,  are  primarily  of  one  class  - a combined  power 
hammer  and  shear.  The  hammer  forms  the  head  on  one  end 
of  the  nail,  after  which  the  shearing  operation  points 
the  other  end,  making  one  complete  nail  for  each  revolu- 
tion of  the  machine. 

The  wire,  from  which  the  nails  are  made,  is 
gripped  by  some  device  on  the  reciprocating  feed  table 
of  the  machine  and  fed  into  this  machine  the  proper  dis- 
tance by  advancing  the  feed  table.  The  wire  first  passes 
between  a pair  of  opposing  dies,  each  having  a barbed 
groove  along  the  centerline  of  the  contact  faces.  These 
are  the  pinch  dies.  The  wire  next  passes  between  two  more 
opposing  dies,  ground  "V"  shaped  on  their  contact  edges. 
These  are  the  cutting  dies. 

At  the  instant  the  feed  table  stops,  the  cutting 
dies  meet,  cut  the  wire  and  immediately  re-open.  In 
the  meantime,  the  pinch  dies  with  the  barbed  grooves 
grip  the  wire  back  of  the  cutting  dies,  leaving,  however, 
sufficient  wire  protruding  to  form  the  head  of  the  nail. 
This  is  done  by  the  blow  on  the  end  of  the  wire  from  the 
now  advancing  hammer.  The  head  is  formed  in  the  counter- 
bore of  the  pinch  dies,  which  act  as  the  anvil. 


(£7) 


' 

- 


■ 


- 


9^1 


r ■ 4.  IH 


During  the  heading  operation  the  feed  table  re- 
cedes to  get  a new  grip  on  the  incoming  wire,  which, 
when  released  by  the  pinch  dies  and  with  the  nail  head  on 
the  end,  is  moved  along  by  the  feed  table  the  desired  nail 
length.  The  nail  is  now  ready  to  be  cutoff  and  pointed 
by  one  operation  of  the  cutting  dies,  oee  Figure  II. 

The  method  of  making  wire  nails  has  been  stand- 
ardized to  a considerable  extent.  Hail  sizes,  both  in 
gage  of  wire  and  length  of  nail,  have  been  made  uniform 
or  practically  so  by  the  nail  manufacturers,  and  the 
builders  of  nail  machines  have  standardized  their 
machines  to  correspond  to  these  nail  sizes. 


(28) 


- 

. 


IV.  AJIiERI CAiS  WIRE  nAII  i£ACHIHIE3. 

( aJ  EARLY  AMERICAN  INVENTIONS.  Wire  nails  had 
been  manufactured  in  New  York  at  ©dd  times  to  fill 
special  orders  since  1Q57.  In  1875  their  manufacture 
was  permanently  started  in  the  United  States  at  Covington, 
Ky.  The  field  thus  opened  up  for  machinery  to  make  wire 
nails  was  not  at  all  attractive  to  inventors  for  at  least 
seven  years  more,  according  to  the  records  of  the  patent 
office.  It  must  be  remembered,  in  this  connection,  that 
the  trade  in  cut  nails  was  not  vigorously  crowded  by  the 
wire  nails  until  about  1888  on  account  of  the  difficulty 
of  obtaining  wire  to  suitably  form  the  nail  heads. 

Altho  several  firms  were  in  the  wire  nail  business 
as  early  as  1880,  the  machines  used  were  few  in  number 
and  all  imported.  In  1882,  a patent  was  issued  to 
William  Taylor  covering  a wire  nail  machine  - the  first 
wire  nail  machine  to  be  mentioned  in  the  United  .States’ 
patent  office  records.  All  other  nail  machine  patents 
had  been  issued  covering  machines  to  make  nails  from 
nail  plate  or  from  nail  rods,  but  wire  nails  were  not 
considered.  The  claims  in  the  Taylor  patent  did  not 

cover  an  entirely  new  machine,  but  rather  improvements 


(29) 


. 


, 

. 

- 


. 


to  be  used  singly,  or  in  combination,  on  existing  types  of 
machines.  This  can  be  said  of  moat  of  the  patents  that 
have  been  taken  out  on  wire  nail  ma chines.  The  nail  to  be 
manufactured  was  comparatively  new  in  this  country,  but 
the  machines  that  could  be  used  for  its  manufacture  were 
adapted  from  the  existing  types,  used  to  make  nails  from 
nail  rods  and  for  v/hich  patents  had  already  been  issued. 
There  is  no  line  of  demarkation  where  the  patents  on  nail 
machines  are  distinctively  for  wire  nails,  but,  in  the 
Taylor  patent  and  in  those  issued  thereafter,  there  is 
that  careful  wording  to  claim  both  the  cut  and  wire  nail 
corcbinat io  n. 

(b)  TRESD  OF  IIVEISTIOKS.  The  Taylor  patent 
claimed  a reciprocating  feed  table,  in  combination  with  a 
chisel  grip, to  advance  the  wire  or  nail  rod  into  the  machine 
and  a.  set  of  marred  rolls  to  barb  the  wire  during  the  return 
stroke  of  the  feed  table  - made  while  the  wire  was  being 
held  in  the  pinch  dies  during  the  heading  operation.  This 
combination  is  in  extended  use  today. 

This  patent  also  claims  a heading  die  backed  by 
four  compression  springs  in  combination  with  a cam  on  the 
main  shaft  to  compress  the  springs,  the  release  of  which 
formed  the  nail  head.  This  feature  was  not  a success,  but 
it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  spring  device  of  forming 
the  head  on  nails  was  still  in  use  at  the  time  this  patent 
was  issued,  having  had  its  origin  in  France  where  the  single 
leaf  wood  spring  was  used,  fastened  to  the  ceiling.  The 
American  adaptation  of  this  was  a vertical  steel  leaf  spring 

- - Lgfll 


f 


•.  01 


' 


. 4 


. 


fastened  to  the  floor.  This  feature  was  copied  by  the 
Germans . 

In  1884,  a patent  was  issued  to  George  lu.  Cooper 
for  a wire  nail  machine.  He  claimed  an  adjustable  die, 
ground  "V"  shaped,  to  pinch  off  the  wire  and  to  form  the 
point  of  the  nail  at  the  same  time.  This  feature  is  in 
use  today  on  practically  all  machines  making  wire  nails. 
His  machine  is  notable  in  that  he  had  discarded  the  spring 
to  form  the  head  and  claimed,  mounted  on  a rockshaft  below 
the  machine  bed,  a header  which  was  actuated  by  a pitman 
from  the  main  shaft.  This  header  was  not  a success  in 
itself,  but  it  paved  the  way  for  improvements  to  come 
later. 

Shortly  after  the  Cooper  patent,  one  was  issued 
to  3.  Loring  who  claimed  a toggle  joint  heading  mechanism 
actuated  by  a pitman  from  the  main  shaft  of  the  machine. 
Modifications  of  this  header  were  patented  in  the  early 
nineties  by  Michael  Baaehes,  some  of  whose  machines  are 
still  in  use. 

In  1885,  a patent  was  issued  to  William  Hassel, 
a son  of  the  first  American  manufacturer  of  wire  nails, 
covering  a nail  machine  having  the  heading  die  carried 
on  a crosshead  which  was  operated  by  a pitman,  direct - 
connected  to  a crank  formed  on  the  main  shaft  of  the 
machine.  This  was  the  most  successful  machine  so  far 
devised  and  a great  many  were  built  in  sizes  ranging  to 
make  nails  from  2d  to  60d.  The  machines  were  made  by 


(51) 


. 


. 

<• 


...  . 


M.  k.  Smith  of  Brooklyn,  B.  Y.,  and  were  known  ad  the 
"Brooklyn”  nail  machine.  The  direct-connected  crosahead 
permitted  increased  speeds.  The  pinch  and  cutting  dies 
were  operated,  as  in  previous  machines,  on  levers  actuated 
by  cams  mounted  on  the  main  shaft.  The  "Brooklyn"  machine 
is  a common  sight  in  wire  nail  mills  of  today. 

In  1892,  a patent  was  issued  to  A.  Alexander 
covering  a nail  machine  in  which  gears  were  substituted 
for  the  cams, which  operated  the  cut  levers  on  most  of  the 
previously  patented  designs.  This  machine  was  a "double 
header";  that  is,  two  sets  of  heading  and  cutting  dies 
were  used  making  two  nails  at  a time,  in  place  of  the 
usual  one.  The  design  was  not  good.  Provision  for  ad- 
justing the  dies,  which  is  a necessary  feature  of  every 
good  nail  machine,  was  lacking.  The  machine  was  fairly 
well  received  and  a number  were  built,  some  of  which  are 
still  in  use.  They  are  known  as  the  "Alexander"  machine. 

A few  years  later,  the  National  Machinery  Company, 
Tiffin,  Ohio,  developed  what  was  then  known  as  the  "Tiffin" 
nail  machine  - now  called  the  "National".  The  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  this  machine  was  the  elimination  of  gears 
and  cams  to  operate  the  cut  levers.  Besides  the  main  crank 
to  do  the  heading,  two  extra  cranks  are  turned  in  the  main 
shaft  from  which,  by  means  of  radius  links  connecting  to 
the  cut  levers,  the  cutting  dies  are  actuated.  The  pinch 

lever  was,  and  is  in  the  later  machines,  operated  from  a 
single  cam.  These  machines  are  still  manufactured  by  the 

(32) 


■ 


. 


N 

, 

. 

, 

- 

f 


same  company,  in  sizes  ranging  to  cut  from  2d  to  60d 
nails . 


When  the  "National"  nail  machines  were  first  put 
on  the  market,  they  represented  the  best  designed  machines 
for  making  wire  nails.  They  have  stood  the  test  of  time 
and  proved  that  they  may  be  fully  depended  upon.  Thus,  a 
more  detailed  description  of  their  operation  is  justified. 

Figure  I shows  the  complete  ".National"  nail  machine 
Jffo*  2,  the  size  used  to  make  lOd  nails.  The  same  general 
design  is  followed  in  all  machines  of  this  make.  The  wire 
is  fed  from  a coil  (not  shown)  at  the  right  side  of  the 
photograph  and  advances  between  the  straightening  rolls  on 
the  feed  table,  traveling  toward  the  left.  Figure  II 
clearly  shows  the  wire,  the  nail  head  formed,  protruding 
beyond  the  pinch  dies  and  ready  to  be  cut  off  by  the 
pincher  like  action  of  the  cutter  dies.  Figure  III  shows 
a view  of  the  pivotal  point  of  the  cut  levers,  taken  from 
the  side  opposite  that  shown  in  Figure  II.  The  relation 
between  the  upper  and  lower  cut  levers  is  clearly  shown, 
as  is  also  the  method  of  securing  the  cutter  die  holders. 

The  ease  of  adjustment  of  all  dies  is  also  shown.  Figure  IV 
shows  the  connection  of  the  cut  levers  to  the  cutter  cranks 
on  the  main  shaft  by  means  of  the  bronze  radius  links  in 
the  immediate  foreground. 

(c)  LATER  TYPES  OF  SAIL  MACHINES.  Within  the  last 
few  years,  two  wire  nail  machines  have  been  developed;  one 
known  as  the  "Universal"  and  the  other  as  the  "Ryerson- 


(33) 


. 


* 

. 

* 

. 


Glader",  named  in  the  order  of  their  appearance  on  the 
market . 

The  "Universal"  machine  is  built  by  Sleeper  & 

Hartley,  Inc.,  Worcester,  Mass.,  and  was  first  offered  to 
the  machinery  trade  in  several  sizes  in  the  year  1917. 

The  machine  contains  no  cams,  operates  a single  crank,  and 
points  and  heads  at  the  same  time  on  two  different  nail 
blanks  held  in  a carrier. 

The  "Ryerso  n-Glader"  machine,  shown  on  Figure  V, 
was  designed  by  William  Glader  of  Chicago  and  is  distributed 
by  the  Joseph  T.  Ryerson  Company  of  Chicago.  In  form  it 
closely  resembles  the  "Alexander"  machine,  except  that  it 
is  for  making  a single  nail.  This  line  of  nail  machines, 
in  several  sizes,  was  put  on  the  market  in  1920. 

These  machines  just  enumerated,  with  a scattering 
of  foreign  made  machines,  principally  of  German  origin, 
form  the  bulk  of  the  machines  used  in  the  past  and  at  present 
in  the  majority  of  nail  mills  of  this  country. 

(d)  PERFORMANCE  OF  VARIOUS  MACHINES.  From  the  very 

character  of  the  work  which  a wire  nail  machine  is  called 

upon  to  perform,  one  would  almost  say  that  speed  was  out 

of  the  question  because  of  the  constant  hammering  of  one 

part  against  another  while  the  machine  is  in  operation.  In 

a nail  mill,  the  nail  machines  are  ordinarily  expected  to 

operate  at  98 fo  efficiency  expressed  on  the  basis  of  the 
actual  output 

ratio  of  theoretical  output.  A nail  machine  which  will  not 
do  that  well  is  not  worth  running.  Machines  are  made  which 


(34) 


. 'vjf' 


c 

* 

t 

* 

, 

> 


f 

. 

I 


will  do  it  and  in  purchasing  equipment  for  nail  mills 
this  point  should  be  considered. 

During  one  revolution  of  a nail  machine 
shaft,  there  are  three  points  of  maximum  strain.  These 
are 

1st.  The  Pinching  Operation 

2d.  The  Heading  Operation 

-5d.  The  Cutting  Operation 

and  all  of  these  are  in  the  nature  of  a shock  to  the 
machine  parts. 

The  radius  link  connections  used  in  the 
"national"  to  actuate  the  cut  levers  make  these  machines 
direct  connected  and  easily  adjusted  to  compensate  for 
wear.  In  the  case  of  machines  using  cams  for  cutting, 
the  wear  is  not  easily  taken  up,  and,  unless  it  is,  the 
machine  must  run  more  slowly. 

In  the  "national"  machines,  the  main  shafts 
have  three  cranks  turned  in  them,  while  most  of  the  other 
types  have  only  one  - that  used  for  actuating  the  header. 
In  case  the  main  shaft  of  a "national"  breaks,  the  cost 
of  replacement  is  perhaps  higher  than  that  of  any  other 
type;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  "national"  link  con- 
nection is  less  expensive  to  make  than  cams  would  be. 

For  the  same  sized  nail,  the  "national"  will  withstand 
a higher  speed  than  many  and  will  hold  up  longer  than 
most  machines. 

In  this  connection  and  in  fairness  to  the 
"Universal"  and  "Ryerso n-Glader"  types,  it  can  be  stated 

. 


(35) 


. 


. • 


that  since  these  machines  have  been  on  the  market  such 
a relatively  short  time  a comparison  between  them  and 
machines  which  have  been  in  operation  for  several  years 
is  impossible. 

In  machines  having  gears,  the  work  of  cutting  the 
nails  always  comes  on  the  same  few  gear  teeth  which  soon 
results  in  excessive  wear  of  these  parts. 

In  general,  it  is  true  that  the  more  simply  a 
nail  machine  can  be  constructed,  the  better.  Parts  on 
all  nail  machines  need  replacing  at  times,  and,  in  buying 
new  machines,  those  having  parts  most  easily  reproduced 
should  be  given  preference  - all  other  things  being  equal. 

(e)  OPERATING  DIFFICULTIES  ENCOUNTERED.  The 
ordinary  nail  machine  has  about  six  main  parts  that  are 
subject  to  strains  causing  wear  or  breakage  and  the  re- 
placement of  these  parts  is  an  important  item  of  expense 
in  a large  nail  mill.  It  is  an  amount  that  increases 
rapidly,  unless  a close  watch  of  the  machines  is  kept  to 
discover,  if  possible,  any  weak  part  liable  to  result  in 
a break. 

The  parts  that  are  subject  to  breaks  from  strain 
are  the  bed,  the  cut  and  pinch  levers,  the  shaft,  the 
flywheel  and  the  feed  table.  A breakdown  of  the  flywheel 
is  most  dangerous  to  the  operator  and  from  a safety  stand- 
point should  be  carefully  avoided. 

(f)  MATERIAL  BEST  ADAPTED  FOR  PRINCIPAL  MACHINE 
PART3.  The  beds  of  practically  all  types  of  nail  machines 

have  been  and  still  are  being  made  of  cast  iron  by  the 


(36) 


■ 


" 


builders.  It  is  evident  to  the  observer  in  a nail  mill 
that  if  the  beds  were  made  of  steel  casting  not  only  would 
the  breaks  there  be  reduced,  but  also  the  accompanying 
breaks  on  other  parts  would  be  lessened.  The  item  of  first 
cost  enters  here.  If  the  point  at  issue  is  a new  bed  for 
an  existing  machine,  there  can  be  no  question  of  the  ad- 
visability of  using  steel  casting;  but,  if  the  purchase 
of  considerable  new  equipment  is  contemplated,  the  item 
of  first  cost  of  steel  casting  beds  versus  cast  iron  beds 
must  be  weighed  carefully  against  the  probable  repair 
item.  If  initial  cost  does  not  have  to  be  seriously  con- 
sidered, there  is  no  doubt  of  the  advisability  of  using 
steel  casting. 

The  shafts  of  nail  machines  break  from  being 
crystallized,  due  to  the  continued  shocks.  From  the 
record  kept  in  a large  nail  mill,  it  is  learned  that  the 
best  steel  to  use  on  shafts  is  a 3-l/£  °/o  nickel  steel, 
heat  treated.  Considerable  use  is  being  made  now  of  low 
nickel  chrome  steel,  heat  treated.  The  price  is  a little 
lower  than  for  nickel  alone  and  the  quality  is  said  to  be 
about  the  same  as  the  3-1  /£fo  nickel,  but  the  results  so 
far  do  not  Justify  the  change.  In  most  case3,  the  3-1 
nickel  steel  shaft  has  the  advantage  of  several  years  of 
service  in  its  favor. 

The  cut  levers  and  the  pinch  levers  of  a 

nail  machine  are  parts  having  an  oscillating  motion  and, 
since  they  are  levers  with  unequal  arms,  they  are  not 


(37) 


. 

. 


« 

* 

' 


- 


. 


balanced.  .The  lighten  they  can  be  made,  with  equal  as- 
surance against  breakage,  the  better.  This  argues  for 
steel  casting,  as  indeed  this  is  the  material  they  should 
be  made  of. 

The  feed  table  is  a reciprocating  piece  in  which 
strength  is  important  and  this  also  should  be  made  of 
steel  casting. 

The  fly  wheel  is  subject  to  severe  shocks,  if 
anything  goes  wrong  with  the  adjustment  of  the  pinch 
dies  while  the  machine  is  in  operation.  Nothing  but 
steel  cast  ingsho  ill  d be  considered  for  this  part. 


(38) 


. Ofljfl'i 


. 


' 


' 


" 


V.  AMERICAN  WIRE  Li  AIL  IRDUSTRY. 


(a)  THE  FIRST  WIRE  RAIL  FACTORY.  In  the  year 
1875,  Rev.  Joseph  Gobbles,  a Catholic  clergyman,  came  to 

Covington,  Ey.,  from  Germany  and  started  the  manufacture 
of  wire  nails  by  hand*  Later  in  the  same  year,  Father 
Gobbles,  associated  with  Mchael  Baaches,  imported  a 
French  wire  nail  machine  and  in  December  of  1875  formed 
a stock  company  under  the  name  of  The  American  Steel 
Wire  & Screw  Rail  Company. 

It  is  interesting  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  this 
first  wire  nail  company  and  to  learn  that  it  still  lives. 

A few  years  after  the  stock  company  was  formed,  the  name 
was  changed  to  The  American  Wire  Rail  Company.  Later,  the 
works  were  moved  to  Anderson,  Ind.,  where  the  company  was 
absorbed  in  1898  by  The  American  Steel  & Wire  Company. 

This  latter  company  is  a subsidiary  of  the  United  States 
Steel  corporation  and  the  nail  mill  at  Anderson,  Ind.,  is 
still  (1921)  operated  as  part  of  the  Anderson  Works  of 
the  American  Steel  A Wire  Company. 

(b)  GRUWTH  OF  THE  RAIL  BUSIRESS.  The  wire  nail 
business  in  America  received  its  first  impetus  in  1876, 
due  to  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadelphia  at  which 

the  American  Wire  & Screw  Rail  Company,  the  infant  wire 


(39) 


\ 


t • 

' 


nail  manufacturers  of  Covington,  Ky. , placed  an  exhibit 
of  their  products  and  won  the  first  prize  over  French, 

German  and  Belgian  competition.  This  presented  the  wire 
nail  to  the  American  public  in  a most  forcible  manner  and 
aided  the  Covington  factory  considerably,  altho  America 
was  slow  to  adopt  the  wire  nail  for  her  needs. 

By  the  year  1888,  wire  nails  had  obtained  a strong 
foothold  in  the  trade  so  that  for  the  first  time  the  plate 
nails  felt  the  competition.  One -fifth  of  the  total  tonnage 
of  nails  produced  that  year  was  made  of  wire.  Growing 
steadily  year  by  year,  the  wire  nail  business  gained  the 
advantage,  which  it  has  never  lost.  In  1895,  seventy-five 
per  cent  of  the  total  tonnage  of  nails  produced  was  wire. 
Shortly  after  this,  the  wire  nail  had  practically  the 
entire  field  and  the  cut  nail  represented  only  a very  small 
fraction  of  the  total  tonnage  produced. 

The  wire  nail  still  holds  the  advantage  gained  in 
the  early  nineties  because  of  the  lower  cost  of  producing 
nails  from  steel  wire.  This  advantage  in  trade  was  gained 
only  by  cutting  the  price  of  wire  nails  to  the  minimum  and 
they  have  sold  as  low  as  eighty  to  ninety  cents,  base,  per 
100#  keg. 

(c)  ECONOMIC  VALUE  IB  ITS  RELATION  TO  WIRE  BUSINESS.; 
The  manufacture  of  wire  nails  is  closely  related  to  and  de- 
pendent upon  the  manufacture  of  wire,  which  is  raw  nail 

material.  There  is  an  economic  reason  for  this  rather 
close  relationship  between  wire  drawing  and  nail  making. 


(40) 


t • 

' 

- 

, 


<■ 

■ 


In  the  process  of  drawing  wire,  a day's  run  will 
result  in  the  production  of  a small  percentage  of  comparatively 
short  lengths  of  wire  which  have  a limited  sphere  of  usefulness 
These  short  lengths  ("shorts",  as  they  are  called  in  the  wire 
nail  mill)  would  ordinarily  be  classified  as  scrap  wire. 

They  occur  through  no  fault  in  the  manufacture  of  the  steel 
itself;  hence,  being  good  steel  wire,  they  can  be  profitably 
cut  up  into  nails  and  sold  at  the  market  price  of  nails  in- 
stead of  being  disposed  of  at  the  market  price  of  scrap  wire. 

For  this  reason,  na.il  making  is  at  least  a side  line 
of  most  wire  drawing  plants,  where  from  one  to  ten  wire  nail 
machines  are  kept  busy  cutting  nails  from  the  mill  rejections 
as  an  economical  measure. 

However,  the  extent  of  nail  making  is  not  dependent 
upon  wire  mill  rejections.  Quite  the  contrary!  The  bulk 
of  wire  nails  is  made  from  wire  drawn  for  the  specific  pur- 
pose of  nail  making. 

The  manufacture  of  wire  nails,  as  an  industry, 
started  in  America  in  the  year  1875  with  the  establishment 
of  the  Covington  factory.  Very  little  capital  was  invested 
because  the  nails  were  made  by  hand  of  wire  produced  in 
Covington,  but  outside  the  nail  factory.  Up  to  1880,  about 
twenty-five  firms  had  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  nails. 

By  1895,  the  wire  drawing  and  wire  nail  making  had  become 
centralized  to  the  point  where  the  wire  nail  market  was  con- 
trolled by  six  to  eight  large  companies  producing  nail  wire 
in  their  own  drawing  plants  and  rod  mills. 


, lit  . "a 

. 


- 


(d)  THE  BAIL  COMBIHE  Alii I)  ITS  INFLUENCE.  In  Jane, 
1895,  the  principal  nail  making  companies  in  the  United 
States  formed  a combine  called  "The  Wire  Hail  Association" 
under  the  leadership  of  John  H.  Parks,  who  had  gained  con- 
siderable experience  in  forming  combines  in  the  days  when 
monopolies,  now  considered  illegal,  were  tolerated.  The 
nail  firms  directly  responsible  for  the  Association  were 

The  American  Wire  Hail  Co. 

The  Indiana  Wire  Fence  Co. 

The  Consolidated  Steel  & Wire  Co. 

The  Illinois  Hail  Co. 

The  Superior  Barbed  Wire  Co. 

The  Judson  Manufacturing  Co. 

The  Brooklyn  Wire  Hail  Co. 

The  members  were  equipped  with  their  own  rod  and 
wire  mills  to  supply  wire  for  nail  manufacture.  For  his 
work  in  organizing  and  managing  the  Association,  Mr.  larks 
received  one  eent  for  each  keg  of  nails  made  by  tlx  As- 
sociation, which  amount  was  paid  by  the  members.  In  ad- 
dition to  this  amount,  the  members  were  assessed  to  build 
up  a fund  for  the  purchase  of  other  mills  and  to  provide 
working  capital.  On  the  payment  of  money  from  this  fund, 
several  companies,  manufacturing  nail  making  machines, 
were  known  to  break  contracts  they  had  made  to  sell 
machines  to  nail  makers  outside  the  Association.  This 
high-handed  method  effectually  curtailed  expansion  in  the 
nail  making  business  outside  the  Association  f o r a con- 
siderable length  of  time. 


(42) 


- 


mm  mgm 


This  Association  was  shortly  followed  by  one 
formed  by  the  manufacturers  of  cut  nails  and  another 
by  the  Canadian  manufacturers  of  nails.  These  three 
succeeded  in  keeping  all  European  nails  out  of  the 
country  during  the  life  of  the  Wire  Hail  Association, 
with  the  exception  of  one  cargo  of  Belgian  nails  said 
to  have  been  landed  in  Hew  York. 

In  1892,  a list  price  of  nails  was  published 
using  the  60d  spikes  as  the  base,  with  a graduated  extra 
price  over  base  for  the  succeeding  smaller  sizes.  For 
2d  nails,  the  extra  was  $1*60  above  base.  The  base  price 
from  1892  to  1895  was  below  the  cost  price  of  raw  material 
for  nails,  not  to  mention  the  cost  of  manufacture  and  the 
price  of  the  keg. 

However,  through  the  efforts  of  the  Association, 
the  base  price  and  extras  on  nails  were  adjusted  so  that 
each  size  nail  was  sold  to  pay  for  its  own  manufacture. 
Prices  quoted  were  all  f.o.b.  Pittsburgh,  with  freight 
from  Pittsburgh  to  destination  added,  regardless  of  the 


place  of  production 


holds  good  to 


the  present  time. 


(43) 


. 

, 


VI.  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  COMMON  WIRE  NAILS. 

(a)  THE  OPERATING  ORGANIZATION  OF  A NAIL  MILL. 

In  addition  to  tbs  executive  department  of  the  plant, 
the  nail  department  has  an  operating  organization  charged 
with  the  proper  and  economical  operation  of  the  mill. 

The  operating  head  of  the  nail  mill  proper  is  the  foreman. 
His  schedule  of  operation  is  sent  from  the  general  office 
and  is  based  upon  a consideration  of  orders  received  and 
the  condition  of  the  stock  of  finished  nails  on  hand. 

He  is  charged  with  turning  out  the  required  tonnage, 
ordering  the  necessary  material  and  keeping  the  employ- 
ment department  informed  of  the  number  of  men  required 
to  keep  the  mill  operating  to  schedule. 

In  the  nail  mill,  the  total  number  of  machines 
is  divided  into  groups  called  "sets",  each  set  having 
twelve  to  fourteen  machines  in  direct  charge  of  an 
operator  who  is  responsible  for  the  operating  adjustment 
of  the  machines  and  the  production  of  such  nails  as  will 
meet  the  standard  specifications.  Each  operator  has  one 
or  more  helpers,  depending  upon  the  tonnage  of  the  set, 
to  handle  the  wire  and  put  the  finished  nails  into 
trucks  for  transportation  to  the  Cleaning  Departmefct. 

, 


(44) 


■ ••  — - • . . 


« 


. 

. 

« 


An  inspector  is  employed,  charged  with  the  re- 
jection of  improperly  made  nails  from  whatever  cause. 

It  is  his  duty  to  see  that  the  nails  have  standard  sized  V 

heads,  correctly  formed,  that  the  nails  are  of  proper 
length  and  gage,  and  that  the  points  are  well  made. 

Upon  his  efficiency,  depends  largely  the  reputation  of 
the  mill  for  good  or  poor  nails. 

A scale-man  is  official  weigher  of  all  nails 
produced  and  a record  is  kept  by  him  of  the  weight  of 
each  size  of  nails  made  in  each  set.  The  weight  is 
taken  just  as  the  nails  are  entering  the  cleaning  depart- 
ment and  this  record  forms  the  basis  of  payment  to  all 
tonnage  workers. 

The  cleaning  and  packing  room  is  in  charge  of  a 
head  packer,  whose  duty  it  is  to  see  that  the  nails  are 
properly  cleaned,  to  v/atch  for  bent  nails  and  to  see  to 
the  proper  packing  and  weighing  of  the  nails. 

The  warehouse  is  in  charge  of  a sub-foreman,  who 
sees  that  the  kegs  are  properly  stored  or  sent  out  on 
orders  and  that  the  orders  are  correctly  filled  and 
checked  before  shipment. 

Repair  work  about  the  machines  is  made  by  a 
special  crev/  of  men,  directly  responsible  to  the  mill 
foreman.  Repair  work  about  the  mill  drives  is  made  by 
the  plant  millwright . 

The  die  room  is  in  charge  of  a head  die  maker, 
with  the  required  helpers.  Dies  are  issued  to  operators 
by  the  head  die  maker  only  as  they  are  needed. 


(45) 


. 

. 

- 


. 

' 


This  forms  the  skeleton  of  the  usual  operating- 
organization  of  a nail  mill  and  reference  to  Hates  I 
to  V,  inclusive,  will  aid  in  a clear  understanding  of 
this  organization* 

(b)  TRADE  DEMANDS  FOR  COMMON  BAILS.  It  is  a 
well  known  fact  that,  in  the  general  run  of  nails  sold, 
there  are  certain  sizes  customarily  used;  while  other 
sizes,  though  standard,  are  used  less  frequently.  The 
demands  follow  the  custom  of  builders  in  their  use  of 
nails.  The  lumber  used  ordinarily  increases  in  size 
by  1”  increments,  while  common  nails  are  standard  with 
l/4"  increments  up  to  the  16d  size  and  in  l/2"  increments 
above  that  to  the  60d  size.  The  sizes  most  commonly 
used  are  4d , 6d,  8d,  lOd,  20d,  40d,  and  60d.  The  other 
sizes  are  used,  but  not  so  generally.  Nails  are  also 
sometimes  ordered  as  special  of  either  larger  or  smaller 
gage  than  that  which  is  standard  for  a given  length. 

A great  number  of  the  nails  exported  have 
checkered  heads.  This  style  of  head  is  standard  in 
Europe.  All  the  wire  nails  made  by  William  haasel  about 
1857  had  checkered  heads,  following  the  European  custom. 
The  smooth  head  nail  is  a result  of  the  American  custom 
of  reducing  costs  wherever  possible.  In  this  case,  the 
crosshatching  of  the  header  dies  was  eliminated.  Just 
when  the  use  of  a smooth  rather  than  a checkered  head 
became  a custom  in  America  is  not  known. 


(46) 


' 

. 


Ip 

. 

, 


(c)  ORDINARY  RARGE  OF  ji.AII  ^JICHIrE  SIZES. 

The  manufacturers  of  nail  machines  still  follow  more  or 
less  closely  the  same  range  of  sizes  that  has  been  in 
vogue  since  the  days  of  the  first  "Brooklyn”  machine. 

The  standard  sizes  of  common  nails  are  given  on  page  19. 


The  following  tables  give  the  range  of  the  four 
principal  makes  of  nail  machines  now  being  manufactured. 
The  operation  of  the  machines  is  explained  in  Chapter  IV. 
In  the  tables,  the  wire  range,  in  terms  of  the  Steel  Wire 
Gage,  is  given  in  addition  to  the  penny  size  of  the 


largest  common  nail  which  each  ma chine  is  capable  of 
making.  The  horse  power  required  to  operate  each  machine 
is  also  given. 


TABLE  II 

"BROOKLYN  " MACHI RES 


Mfr ' s 
Rumber 

Wire 

Range 

Rail 
Le  ngth 

r.p.m. 

h .p . 

• req . 

Largest 
Com.  .wail 

0 

20 

- 15 

1/2  - 1" 

370 

!/ 2 

2d 

1 

17 

- 14 

1/2  - 1-1/4 

370 

3/4 

3d 

£ 

16 

- 12-1/2 

1/2  - 1-3/4 

335 

1 

4d 

3 

13 

- 11-1/2 

3/4  - 2 

285 

1-3/4 

6d 

5-1/2 

12- 

■1/2  - 9 

3/4  - 3 

230 

2-1/2 

lOd 

4 

10 

- 6 

1-4 

160 

3-1/2 

20d 

5 

7 

- 4 

1-5 

150 

4 

40d 

Mfr ' s 
number 

TABLE  III 

"UNIVERSAL " MACHINES 

Wire  Rail 

Range  Length  r.p.m. 

h.p . 

req . 

Largest 
Com .Rail 

1 

22 

- 18 

1/4  - 1" 

500 

1/2 

2d 

2 

20 

- 14 

3/8  - 2 

400 

3/4 

3d 

3 

16 

- 9 

1/2-3 

300 

1-1/4 

lOd 

4 

12 

- 6 

3/4  - 4-1/2 

250 

3 

20d 

(47) 


TABLE  IV. 


"EAT I ORAL 

" MACH  IKES 

Mf  r ' s 

Wire 

Kail 

h.p. 

Largest 

K umber 

Range 

Length 

r.p. 

m.  req. 

Com  .iiai 

5 

22  - 15 

l/4 

- 1" 

500 

1/2 

3d 

4 

16  - 12-1/2 

!/2 

- 1-1/2 

400 

3/4 

4d 

3 

14  - 11-1/2 

- 2 

375 

1-1/2 

6d 

£ 

13-9 

l/2 

- 3 

275 

2 

lOd 

1-1/2 

10-5 

1/2 

- 4-1/2 

200 

4 

30d 

0 

6-0 

1 

- 9 

175 

6 

60d 

00 

4 - 000 

2 

- 12, 

150 

10 

Bpikes 

TABLE  V. 

"RYERBOE-GLALER"  MACHINES 


Mfr  ’ s 

Wire 

Kail 

r .p .m. 

h.p . 

La rgest 

Kumber 

Range 

Length 

req . 

Com. Kail 

00 

20 

!/4 

- 3/4" 

500 

3/4 

0 

15 

!/2 

- 1-1/4 

400 

1 

3d 

1 

15 

- 11-1/2 

i/2 

- 2 

350 

2 

6d 

2 

12- 

■1/2  - 9 

l/2 

- 3-1/4 

300 

3 

lOd 

3 

10 

- 5 

3/4 

- 4-3/4 

200 

5 

30d 

4 

6 

- 2 

1 

- 6 

175 

7-1/2 

60d 

(d)  KIEL  OF  WIRE  USED.  All  the  wire  nails  used 
today  are  made  of  what  is  known  as  "hard  drawn"  steel  wire. 
The  usual  run  of  nails  is  made  of  Bessemer  steel,  but,  on 
special  orders,  nails  can  be  made  of  basic  open  hearth 
steel.  In  any  event,  both  kinds  of  steel  used  are  of  the 
low  carbon  stock. 

In  drawing  wire,  the  stock  gets  harder  each  suc- 
ceeding draft  until  for  low  carbon  stock  the  wire  must  be 
annealed  and  re-cleaned  before  the  smaller  sizes  can  be 
drawn.  In  drav/ing  nail  stock,  the  aim  is  to  get  the 
final  draft  made  before  annealing  is  necessayy  so  that  the 
finished  nail  will  possess  the  requisite  stiffness. 


(48) 


- 

- 

- 

- 

_ _ 

_ 

— 


' ■ . . ..  . ■ . -a  ■ i -.1 

In  making  nails  having  large  sized  heads,  it  is 
necessary  to  use  wire  made  of  open  hearth  steel,  because 
the  Bessemer  steel  shows  a tendency  to  split  when  the  wide 
heads  are  formed. 

(e)  ECONOMIC  ARRANGEMENT  OF  DRIVES  &.  MACHINES . 

The  extent  of  operation  of  a nail  mill  will  depend  upon 
orders  received  from  the  trade.  If  the  orders  were  always 
of  such  size  that  the  entire  output  of  the  mill  would  be 
required  to  fill  them,  the  arrangement  of  the  drive  would 
be  simply  a matter  of  obtaining  a power  unit  large  enough 
to  drive  the  entire  mill.  However,  experience  shows  that 
orders  are  not  received  in  such  convenient  amounts  and 
there  are  times  when  only  a small  part  of  the  mill  will 
need  to  operate. 

To  meet  this  condition,  a flexible  arrangement 
of  drives  and  machines  must  be  provided;  that  is,  the 
machines  must  be  grouped  in  such  a way  that  several  dif- 
ferent sizes  oan  be  operated  at  one  time  and  still  have 
only  a part  of  the  mill  running.  This  will  give  a small 
tonnage,  but  a varied  output. 

(f)  TONNAGE  AS  A BASIS  OF  WAGE  PAYMENT.  The 
tonnage  output  of  any  nail  machine  depends  upon  the  kind 
of  nail  being  made.  A glance  at  the  preceding  tables  of 
this  chapter  shows  a wide  variation  in  the  length  of  nail 
which  can  be  cut  and  the  gage  of  wire  which  can  be  used 
on  any  of  these  machines.  For  this  reason,  the  weight  of 
the  output  of  one  of  two  machines  of  the  same  size  in  one 
set  might  easily  treble  that  of  the  other,  even  though 


(49) 


. 


. 


Wm 

. 

. 


the  number  of  nails  cut  per  minute  was  the  same  on 
both  machines. 

Hence,  the  payment  of  operators  on  a tonnage 
basis  would  be  out  of  the  question.  The  method  used  is 
this.  The  pay  is  figured  on  the  actual  number  of  nails 
made  per  hour,  instead  of  the  weight,  although  the 
weight  of  the  output  is  used  as  a basis  of  determining 
the  number  of  nails  made.  (See  column  headed  "Approximate 
number  per  pound"  in  Table  I . ) This  gives  a basis  of 
payment  which  is  unvarying  as  regards  the  100$  production 
on  any  machine,  or  kind  of  machine,  for  a day’s  run. 

(g)  ADVANTAGE  OF  COAST AST  SPEED.  From  the 
foregoing,  it  is  obvious  that  all  machines,  of  each 
separate  style  about  the  mill,  must  operate  at  the  same 
speed.  Otherwise,  of  two  operators  making  the  same  size 
of  nail,  the  one  having  the  higher  speed  machine  will 
constantly  earn  more  than  the  other  operator.  This  would 
be  a cause  of  discontent  and  should  be  avoided  by  a care- 
ful supervision  of  the  speeds. 

(h)  POWER  RE ^UIREiAEnTo  OF  aAIL  MACHINES.  All 
nail  machines  are  equipped  with  fly  wheels  and,  once 
started,  the  belt  load  remains  practically  the  same  for 
indefinite  periods.  Repeated  tests  with  a motor,  equipped 
to  drive  individual  machines  and  measure  the  power  con- 
sumption, proves  that  the  horse  power  requirement  of  nail 
machines,  as  shown  in  Tables  II  to  V,  inclusive,  is  very 
near  correct.  A slight  variation  will  take  place,  as 


(50) 


' 


between  a barbed  or  a smooth  shank  nail;  but  the  horse 
power  required,  as  shown,  is  close  for  the  average  output 
of  any  size  machine. 

(i)  TRUCKING  OF  COMMODITIES.  The  nails,  as  they 
are  made,  drop  into  a steel  "tote  box"  under  the  machine 
and  from  there  are  dumped  into  steel  hopper  trucks  which 
hold  about  1500#,  each.  These  trucks  are  hauled  by  elec- 
tric storage  battery  tractor  to  the  elevator,  which  takes 
them  to  the  second  floor  of  the  cleaning  department  where 
each  truck  load  is  weighed.  The  trucks  here  are  bandied 
by  man  power,  because  of  the  short  haul  from  the  elevator 
to  the  tumbler  and  the  necessity  of  dumping  the  nails 
when  the  proper  tumbler  is  reached. 

The  wire  from  the  wire  mill  is  hauled  into  the 
nail  mill  by  electric  storage  battery  tractors. 


(51) 


* 


1 


VII.  CLEAiilEG  AiiiD  POLIoHIMJ  MILS. 

(a)  IiLPORTAIiCE  OF  CLEAaIJuG  &.  P0LI3HIEG  MILS. 

In  the  process  of  wire  drawing,  the  wire  acquires  a thin 
coating  of  heavy  grease  - a coating  which  is  very  desirable 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  nail  maker,  but  which  would  be 
most  undesirable  from  the  standpoint  of  the  customer  if  it 
were  allowed  to  remain  on  the  nails.  This  coating  of 
grease  on  the  wire  acts  as  a lubricant  for  the  cutting  dies 
in  the  nail  machine,  and,  for  that  reason,  is  decidedly  ad- 
vantageous to  the  nail  maker.  The  nail  wire  could  be  pro- 
duced in  the  wire  mill  without  the  grease  coating  by  draw- 
ing bright  wire,  at  a very  slight  advance  in  cost,  but, 
since  nothing  is  to  be  gained  and  considerable  would  be 
l03t  by  its  elimination,  the  coating  continues  to  be  a 
requirement  of  the  nail  maker. 

In  the  nail  machine , during  the  process  of  heading 
and  pointing,  slightly  burred  edges  are  acquired  by  the 
nails  about  the  head  and  at  the  point.  If  the  nails  were 
sold  without  first  removing  these  burred  edges,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  handle  the  nails  as  a carpenter  must  do 
without  lacerating  the  hands. 

The  first  waste  of  steel  in  making  wire  nails 
occurs  in  the  process  of  pointing,  at  which  time  the  waste 


(52) 


, 

' 


- ■ 


- 


, 


1 


or  scrap  called  "whiskers"  is  produced.  These  are  small, 
diamond  shaped  pieces  of  steel  cut  from  the  wire  when  the 
nail  is  pointed.  The  "whiskers"  drop  into  a receptacle 
under  the  machine  with  the  nails,  but  during  the  process 
of  tumbling  the  nails  and  "whiskers"  are  separated. 

For  the  purpose  of  removing  the  grease  first 
mentioned  and  to  rid  the  nail  of  objectionable  burred 
edges,  it  is  necessary  to  polish  and  smooth  the  nails  by 
tumbling-  them  in  a steel  drum  for  a time  before  packing 
them  for  shipment. 

In  most  states,  in  addition  to  the  tumbling,  the 
manufacturer  is  required  by  law  to  heat  sterilize  all 
lath  nails,  besides  packing  them  in  dust  proof  containers 
for  shipment.  The  containers  used  are  the  standard  nail 
kegs,  made  dust  proof  by  a lining  of  suitable  paper. 

(b)  MIL  TUMBLERS.  The  subject  of  tumblers  for 
cleaning  nails  is  one  that  has  cost  the  nail  companies  a 
very  considerable  sum  of  money,  for  the  mechanical  clean- 
ing of  nails  and  the  elimination  of  dirt  and  "whiskers" 
is  not  so  easy  of  accomplishment  as  might  at  first  seem 
probable . 

The  tumblers  are  cylindrical  in  form,  with  cast 
iron  heads  mounted  on  a 4 or  5"  diameter  shaft  which  is 
continuous  through  the  tumblers.  The  sides  are  usually 
made  of  l/4"  special  steel  plate,  containing  from  3 to  4% 
nickel  to  withstand  the  abrasion  of  the  nails.  The 
plates  are  bent  36  to  42"  in  diameter  and  long  enough  to 


(53) 


' 


- 


■ 


hold  fifteen  to  twenty- five  kegs  of  nails.  Each  tumbler 
has  a removable  lid  bolted  onto  and  extending  the  full 
length  of  the  body.  This  lid  is  double  and  is  made  up  of 
two  steel  plates,  curved  the  same  as  the  tumbler  body. 

A 3/16"  inside  plate,  perforated  with  l/8"  diameter  holes, 
is  mounted  on  a 1 / 4 " outside  plate  with  1/4"  liners  between, 
forming  a space  out  of  which  the  dirt,  saw  dust  and  "whisk- 
ers" must  escape  by  sifting  through  the  perforations  of 
the  inside  lid  plate  during  the  period  of  cleaning.  The 
outside  plate  prevents  the  nails  coming  through  these  per- 
forations. The  tumbler  is  charged  and  discharged  by  re- 
moving the  lid . 

It  has  been  found  that  the  most  economical  method 
of  tumbling  nails  is  to  handle  them  in  lots  of  fifteen 
kegs  or  more  at  a time.  This  reduces  to  a minimum  the 
labor  of  weighing  at  the  packing  scale  , the  labor  of 
heading  kegs  and  the  labor  of  storing  nails  in  the  ware- 
house by  having  several  kegs  of  the  same  size  nails  to 
handle  at  one  time. 

(c)  POLISHING  MATERIAL.  The  cheap,  but  effective, 
polishing  material  for  wire  nails  is  common  sawdust  and 
it  is  used  universally  for  that  purpose.  It  is  put  into 
the  tumbler  with  the  nails,  and,  during  the  tumbling  period, 
is  gradually  eliminated  with  the  dirt  and  "whiskers"  by 
sifting  through  a finely  perforated  false  cover.  The 
dirt,  sawdust  and  "whiskers"  drop  into  the  hopper  under 
the  tumbler,  as  shown  on  Plate  VI.  When  the  tumbler  is 


(54) 


■ 


r 


rid  of  all  sawdust  and  "whiskers",  the  hopper  is  cleaned 
out,  after  which  the  nails  are  dumped  from  the  tumbler 
into  this  hopper  and  from  there  packed  in  kegs  and  sent 
to  the  warehouse.  It  is  not  customary  to  use  sawdust  of 
any  particular  wood,  because  the  sawdust  of  all  woods  seems 
to  answer  the  purpose  equally  well. 

(d)  TIME  REQUIRED  TO  CLEAE.  The  tumblers  are 
usually  run  at  a speed  of  about  20  r.p.m.  After  the 
tumbler  is  charged,  it  is  run  for  a period  of  an  hour 
to  an  hour  and  a half  depending  upon  the  condition  of 
nails  to  be  cleaned.  One  and  one-quarter  hours  is  not 
an  unusual  period  required  to  clean  nails. 

(e)  PREVENT Ix,G  BEET  EAILS  IE  CLEAEIEG.  In 
cleaning  nails  in  a tumbler,  care  must  be  exercised  lest 
considerable  damage  be  done  by  bending  the  nails.  This 
usually  occurs  as  a result  of  the  nails  catching  in  some 
point  in  the  sides  or  ends  of  the  tumbler  which  has  worn 
out  and  needs  replacing.  Borne  few  years  ago,  a many  sided 
tumbler,  say  ten  to  twelve  sides,  was  quite  popular. 
However,  it  was  found  that  the  nails  rapidly  wore  the 
joints  between  the  faces  and  the  result  was  many  bent 
nails.  These  tumblers  have  been  replaced  for  the  most 
part  by  those  of  the  cylindrical  steel  drum  type,  free 
from  construction  joints  in  the  sides. 

The  round  tumbler  has  proved  very  satisfactory. 

Erom  four  to  six  steel  angle  irons  should  be  riveted  to 
the  side  of  the  tumbler,  parallel  to  the  shaft,  to  break 


(55) 


- 


. 


the  slide  of  the  nails  around  the  circumference  as  other- 
wise the  tumbler  will  wear  rapidly.  Common  carbon  sheet 
steel  for  the  sides  will  not  last  over  one  to  three  years, 
while  hard  steel  has  been  known  to  give  service  ft)  r 
twenty-six  years  in  a nail  tumbler. 

fiails  bent  in  tumbling  are  easily  overlooked  and 
once  put  into  the  keg  and  sent  to  the  warehouse  no  more  is 
heard  from  them  until  a complaint  is  received  from  the 
customer.  The  prevention  of  bent  nails  is  important. 

The  price  is  vigilance  and  the  remedy  is  frequent  and  sys- 
tematic inspection  of  all  nail  tumblers. 


(56) 


- 

' 


VIII.  PACKING  AUD  3T0HIUG  EAIIo 


(a)  UBUAL  MIL  PACKAGE.  It  has  been  the  custom 
in  America  for  a number  of  years,  before  the  days  of 
wire  nails  at  least,  to  use  a wood  keg  for  the  shipment 
of  nails.  This  keg  is  of  such  size  that  it  will  hold 
net  100§  of  nails , which  is  also  an  American  custom.  Kegs 
have  been  standardized  now  as  much  as  possible,  which  is 
of  great  advantage  in  a large  warehouse  where  kegs  of 
several  manufacturers  must  all  be  piled  together. 

The  standard  keg  is  made  of  bilge  sawed  staves, 

18"  long,  and,  before  the  keg  is  assembled,  the  material 
is  all  kiln  dried.  Ko  attempt  is  made  to  produce  a water- 
tight keg,  as  was  once  the  custom  in  making  nail  containers. 
On  account  of  the  growing  scarcity  of  wood  and  the  con- 
sequent increasing  cost  of  it,  numerous  patents  have  been 
issued  covering  the  design  and  manufacture  of  steel  con- 
tainers for  nails,  but  without  much  practical  success. 

In  unheated  warehouses,  the  steel  package  is  a contributory 
cause  of  spoiled  nails  from  rusting  as  this  package  will 
sweat  in  damp  weather.  Besides  this  objection,  the  lightest 
steel  keg  is  heavier  than  one  made  of  wood  and,  for  this 
reason,  would  cause  a large  loss  in  freight  due  to  the 
increased  weight  of  the  container.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 


(57) 


..  - , . - , 


- 


the  day  is  far  away  when  steel  containers  for  nails  will 
replace  those  made  of  wood. 

Special  nails  are  packed  in  suitable  boxes  of  any 
description  to  please  the  customer. 

(b)  PARALLEL  PACKING  OR  MILS.  The  standard  nail 
keg  is  18"  long  by  9 to  11"  in  diameter,  depending  upon 
the  size  of  nail  to  be  packed.  It  is  a fact  that  nails 
dropped  promiscuously  into  a package  occupy  more  room  per 
pound  that  when  arranged  systematically.  Actually,  tie 
systematic  method'  of  packing  nails  will  permit  the  use  of 
a keg  1"  less  in  diameter  than  that  required  by  the  pro- 
miscuous method.  The  cooperage  thus  saved  in  the  course 
of  a year's  run  in  a large  nail  mill  will  amount  to  several 
thousands  of  dollars  in  value. 

The  method  of  systematically  arranging  nails  in 
the  package  is  simple.  A funnel,  provided  with  four 
parallel  steel  partitions,  long  enough  to  extend  almost 
to  the  bottom  of  the  nail  package,  is  dropped  into  the 
keg  to  be  packed.  The  keg  is  then  placed  under  the  lower 
edge  of  the  shelf  of  the  tumbler  hopper  and  the  nails  are 
raked  into  the  keg  through  the  funnel,  while  the  keg  is 
kept  in  vibration  by  means  of  a rigid  connection  to  a 
small  throw  eccentric  on  a shaft  under  the  tumbler,  as 
shown  on  Plate  VI.  The  function  of  the  funnel  partitions 
is  to  cause  the  nails  to  parallel  as  the  keg  is  vibrated, 
thus  economizing  noom  in  the  keg.  The  keg  is  vibrated 


(58) 


< 

. 

- 


. 


about  350  times  per  minute.  This  gives  a compact  and 
systematic  arrangement  of  the  nails  in  the  package. 

In  1916,  a Swiss  by  the  name  of  Otto  Gamper  in- 
vented a magnetic  nail  packer  whereby  nails  were  drawn 
parallel  to  the  lines  of  magnetic  force  while  dropping 
into  the  package.  This  packer  was  based  on  the  principle 
that  linear  articles  of  iron,  when  brought  into  a magnetic 
field,  automatically  take  a position  parallel  to  the  lines 
of  force.  The  outfit  is  primarily  for  packing  special 
nails,  such  as  foundry  nails,  in  small  boxes,  but  its 
practical  value  in  a large  mill  is  still  to  be  proved. 

Up  to  the  present  time,  it  has  not  been  extensively 
adopted. 

(c)  PACKING  MACHINERY.  After  the  kegs  are  filled 
with  nails  at  the  tumbler,  the  keg,  still  without  the  head, 
is  placed  on  a floor  type  conveyor  which  delivers  it  to 

the  scale  for  final  weighing.  The  net  weight  of  the  nails, 
regardless  of  size,  is  made  100#*  After  leaving  the  scale, 
the  head  (properly  stencilled  with  size  of  nails,  and 
maker's  name)  is  put  on  by  hand  together  with  the  top  hoop 
which  is  ptressed  home  in  a head  press  machine.  The  keg  is 
now  rolled  by  gravity  to  a nailing  machine,  which  nails 
the  top  hoop  through  to  the  head.  From  the  nailing  ma chine, 
the  keg  is  delivered  to  the  warehouse  by  a conveyor. 

(d)  STORAGE  OF  KAIL  KEGS.  When  the  supply  of 
nail  kegs  is  depended  upon  to  come  from  the  outside,  a 

shutdown  due  to  a delay  in  shipment  must  be  guarded 
against  by  providing  storage  for  enough  kegs  to  tide  over 
(59) 


. 


any  reasonable  delay.  The  Kegs  are  light  and  no  special 
type  of  building  is  necessary.  The  place  of  storage 
should  be  located  where  the  cost  of  handling  and  re- 
handling is  cut  to  a minimum.  This  would  be  near  the 
packicg  room  and  near  a side  track. 

( e ) THE  STORAGE  OF  HAILS.  The  logical  size  of 
the  warehouse  for  finished  nails  is  only  to  be  determined 
by  the  policy  of  the  manufacturer  as  to  the  quantity  of 
finished  stock  to  be  carried.  The  net  floor  area  deter- 
mined upon  must  be  increased  for  the  necessary  aisles 
and  trackways  between  piles  of  various  sized  nails,  as 
each  size  should  be  kept  in  a section  by  itself  and 
accessible  in  case  nails  from  this  section  were  wanted 
to  fill  an  order. 

The  nail  warehouse  must  be  dry.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  have  it  heated,  but  it  should  be  well  ventilated. 
The  floor  must  be  dry  at  all  times,  else  the  nails  will 
rust.  Besides  being  dry,  the  fLoor  must  be  capable  of 
sustaining  the  weight  of  loaded  kegs  piled  to  the  ceiling, 
which  it  will  be  subjected  to  during  a time  when  the 
policy  of  the  manufacturer  is  to  accumulate  a large  stock 
of  finished  nails. 

The  warehouse  should  be  located  where  switch  tracks 
are  accessible  without  bothering  the  other  departments  of 
the  plant.  The  use  of  a covered  loading  platform  is 

strongly  recommended,  as  the  loading  of  any  number  of 
cars  is  possible  by  extending  the  platform  the  required 
amount,  without  altering  the  building.  The  cover  is  a 


' 


protection  to  both  nails  and  employes  when  loading  in 
stormy  weather. 

It  is  essential  that  the  warehouse  be  isolated 
from  the  cleaning  department , or  any  other  department 
where  dust  is  raised;  othe rwise , the  nails  will  get 
dirty  if  stored  for  any  length  of  time  and  this  will 
give  rise  to  complaints  from  the  customer. 


(61) 


. 


IX. 


MIL  DIES. 


(a)  KIHD  OF  STEEL  BEST  ADAPTED.  A considerable 
item  of  expense  in  the  operation  of  a nail  mill  is  in- 
volved in  making  the  cutting  and  pinch  dies  and  the 
heading  hammers.  Both  cutter  and  pinch  dies  are  made 
from  beveled  shapes  sold  by  the  tool  steel  makers  and 
known  as  "Wire  Hail  Die  Shapes".  These  shapes  are  made 
up  in  bars  beveled  at  an  angle  of  3 0 degrees,  on  two 
edges,  so  that  no  machinery  is  necessary  to  fit  the  die 
into  the  die  holder  of  the  machine. 

The  grade  of  steel  best  adapted  for  cutter  dies 
is  one  of  the  high  speed  varieties.  High  speed  steels 
are  the  only  ones  that  will  stand  up  on  Bessemer  steel 
wire  at  the  speeds  which  nail  machines  are  operated, 
because  of  the  heat  generated  in  heading  and  cutting. 

The  life  of  the  dies  is  longer  when  cutting  open  hearth 
steel . 

Pinch  dies  made  of  high  speed  steel  will  stand 
up  the  longest,  unless  they  are  accidentally  broken. 

This  rarely  happens  except  on  20d  to  60d  sizes,  where, 
on  account  of  the  higher  pressures  necessary  to  hold  the 
wire  for  heading,  the  dies  are  sometimes  split  in  two. 
For  these  larger  machines,  Ho. 5 temper  common  tool  steel 


(6£) 


- 


. 

. 


is  sometimes  used;  then,  if  the  die  splits,  the  cost 
of  the  tool  steel  lost  is  not  as  great  as  for  the  high 
speed  steel. 

The  hammer  heads  are  made  of  machinery  steel 
having  a counter-bored  hole  in  one  end,  into  which  is 
pressed  a hardened,  high  speed  steel  plug.  The  hammer 
can  then  be  repaired  by  renewing  the  plug,  which  forms 
the  head  on  the  nail. 

(b)  HARDENING  AND  TEMPERING.  The  die  maker 
cuts  steel  into  the  required  lengths  for  various  dies 
and  performs  the  few  necessary  machine  operations  on 
the  pieces  to  prepare  them  before  hardening.  They  are 
then  heated  in  a gas  furnace  and  tempered  in  oil,  all 

in  strict  conformity  to  the  steel  manufacturers  instruc- 
tions for  that  particular  grade  of  steel.  After  harden- 
ing, the  dies  are  finished  by  grinding. 

(c)  ECONOMIC  UTILIZATION  OF  TOOL  STEEL  DIE  SCRAP. 
After  being  used  for  a period  of  twenty  to  twenty-four 
hours  operating  time,  the  cutter  dies  get  dull.  They  can 
be  reground  once  or  twice,  after  which  they  must  be  an- 
nealed and  remade.  In  time,  they  become  too  short  to  be 
easily  handled,  but  by  the  use  of  the  oxyacetylene  torch 

a piece  of  soft  steel  can  be  welded  on  the  die  and  the 
original  length  restored  and  the  useful  life  of  that 
particular  piece  of  tool  steel  prolonged  accordicgly. 

(d)  MACHINERY  REQUIRED.  The  amount  of  machinery 
required  to  operate  a die  room  is  not  extensive.  A cold 


(63) 


. 


- 


..  ... 


saw,  with  automatic  attachment,  id  required  to  cut  the 
tool  steel  bars  into  die  lengths.  A small  milling 
machine  and  an  18"  shaper  will  take  care  of  the  neces- 
sary milling  and  shaping  of  the  cutter  and  pinch  dies. 

A three-  or  fo ur- vertical  multiple  spindle  sensitive  drill 
is  required  for  the  pinch  dies  and  some  styles  of  cutter 
dies.  Two  nail  die  grinding  machines,  with  universal 
die  holders,  for  grinding  the  pointing  dies  are  neces- 
sary. The  "Universal"  machine,  built  by  the  makers  of 
the  "Universal"  nail  machines,  gives  excellent  results. 
This  is  one  of  the  very  few  machines  made  for  the  work 
of  gri nd i ng  nai  1 d ie s . 

To  complete  the  equipment  is  needed  a Isio.l 
gas  fired  oven  furnace  for  both  heating  and  annealing 
the  dies,  and  a gss  heated  oil  bath  for  tempering  some 
grades  of  dies.  The  operation  of  these  gas  furnaces 
requires  a positive  blower  to  furnish  the  air. 


(64) 


■ 


, 

. 


X.  DESIGN  AImD  EEBCRIPTIOli  OF  A TYPICAL  SAIL  MILL. 


(a)  STATEMENT  OF  PROBLEM.  While  engaged  in 
the  engineering  depsrtment  of  a large  steel  wire  drawing 
plant,  the  writer  was  required  to  lay  out,  and  later 
build,  a complete  mill  for  the  manufacture  of  all  com- 
monly used,  standard  wire  nails.  This  mill  has  been  in 
operation  for  the  past  few  years  and  has  a capacity  of 
about  100  net  tons  of  finished  nails  every  ten  hours. 

The  experience  gained  in  that  undertaking  and  the  facts 
gathered  from  comparative  observations  made  at  other 
nail  manufacturing  plants  form  the  basis  of  this  descrip- 
tion, which  is  typical  of  the  modern,  American  nail  mill. 
The  present  state  of  the  art  of  making  nails,  described 
in  detail  in  the  preceding  chapters,  is  given  for  the 
purpose  of  making  clear  the  various  points  influencing 
the  design  of  this  type  of  mill. 

It  was  desired  to  increase  the  finishing  equipment 
of  the  plant  to  dispose  of  sbout  100  tons  of  plain  drawn 
steel  wire,  daily,  which  amount  could  be  furnished  from 
the  wire  mill  in  almost  any  size,  from  rods  down  to  15  gage 
wire.  The  manufacture  of  nails  filled  the  requirements 
nicely,  because  equipment  could  be  purchased  to  use  all 

common  sizes  of  wire  in  some  quantity.  Just  what  the 
total  quantity  would  amount  to,  in  tons  of  wire,  with 


(65) 


. 


. 


. 


the  nail  mill  running  full,  could  not  be  accurately  fore- 
told, because  the  tonnage  output  would  only  be  determined 
by  the  style  of  nails  to  be  manufactured  to  meet  trade 
demands . 

To  illustrate  how  these  trade  demands  cause  a 
variation  in  the  tonnage  requirements  of  wire,  a #9  x l/£" 
roofijqg  nail  and  a lOd  common  nail  are  both  made  of  the 
same  gage  wire,  on  the  same  size  machine,  and  at  the  same 
number  of  nails  per  hour.  The  roofing  nail  is  l/£"  long 
and  an  hour's  run  on  the  machine  weighs  68#:  the  lOd  nail 
is  3"  long  and  an  hour's  run  on  the  machine  weighs  £48#  - 
a difference  of  11  £#  in  favor  of  a higher  tonnage  in  the 
case  of  the  lOd  nail. 

In  order  to  establish  an  arbitrary  tonnage  for 
the  production  of  the  mill,  for  the  preliminary  work  of 
design,  only  the  common  variety  of  nails  was  considered 
in  the  output,  altho  the  same  machines  are  adjustable  to 
make  all  styles  of  nails  within  their  range  of  length 
and  gage. 

(b)  OUTLINE  OF  DESIGN.  In  the  designing  of  a 
nail  mill,  the  first  requisite  is  a comprehensive  know- 
ledge of  the  operation  of  nail  machines  and  nail  making 
methods.  The  first  step  was  to  outline  the  general  plan, 
bearing  in  mind  the  mechanical  operation,  superintendence, 
co-ordination  of  new  and  existing  divisions,  routing' 
material  and  future  expansion. 


(66) 


' 


. 

*• 


* 

, 

. 

■ 

- 0 

- 


In  general,  a nail  mill  has  three  divisions  - 
each  one  subdivided,  as  follows 

I.  MANUFACTURING. 

1.  Hail  Machines 

2.  Handling  Material 

3.  Building 

II.  CLEANING  A HD  PACKING. 

1.  Cleaning  Machinery 

2.  Packing  Machinery 

3.  Building 

III.  WAREHOUSE 

t 

(c)  SELECTION  OF  HAIL  MACHINES.  The  nail  machines, 
of  all  equipment  in  the  nail  mill,  are  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance and  it  is  upon  their  selection  that  operating  costs 
largely  depend.  Operation  of  the  principal  nail  machines 
is  explained  in  Chapters  III  and  IV.  In  connection  with 
the  design  of  the  nail  mill  in  question,  it  was  proposed 
to  do  necessary  repair  work  on  the  nail  mill  equipment  in 
the  machine  shop  used  for  repairs  in  the  rest  of  the  plant. 
This  was  a factor  in  the  choice  of  new  equipment , care 
being  taken  to  make  sure  that  all  parts  could  be  made  in 
this  shop.  The  first  cost  was  not  necessarily  a govern- 
ing influence  in  their  choice.  In  addition  to  the  new 
machines  to  be  purchased,  there  were  several  second  hand 
machines  available  for  use  and  these  were  included  in  the 
equipment . 

After  a careful  survey  to  determine  the  quantities 
of  various  sizes  of  nails  to  be  made,  the  total  number  of 
machines  was  placed  at  one  hundred  sixty-two  and  divided 
as  between  the  number  of  each  size  required.  The.  estimated 


(67) 


- 


' 


. 


» 


tonnage  output  and  horse  power  required  to  drive  the 
machines  were  taken  from  the  data  in  tables  shown  on 
pages  47  and  48. 

(d)  BUILDING.  The  general  character  of  nail 
making  machines,  which  is  explained  in  more  detail  in 
the  preceding  chapters,  together  with  the  weight  of  the 
output  make  it  desirable  to  have  the  nail  making  done 
on  the  ground  floor,  where  each  machine  can  be  placed  on 
an  individual  foundation.  The  building  is  not  then  sub- 
jected to  the  excessive  vibration  obtaining  where  machines 
are  operated  and  heavy  load3  trucked  on  an  upper  floor. 

The  floor  space  required  for  each  machine  is  not 
large,  and  the  working  spaces  can  be  arranged  in  straight 
lines,  no  working  space  is  required  back  of  the  crank 
shaft  for  the  operation  of  the  machines.  This  being  the 
case,  the  machines  can  be  arranged  in  a double  row  along 
the  mill,  with  the  line  shaft  carried  overhead  between 
two  single  rows  of  machines  which  are  driven  by  individual 
belts  from  this  line  shaft. 

A truckway,  over  which  the  nail  wire  is  brought 
into  the  mill  and  the  nails  taken  away  to  the  cleaning 
department,  is  required  in  front  of  each  single  row  of 
machines.  In  addition  to  this  truckway,  space  within 
easy  reach  of  each  machine  is  required  in  which  to  stock 
the  wire  which  is  to  be  cut  into  nails.  This  space  can 

best  be  supplied  across  the  truckway  from  the  machines. 


(68) 


■ 


The  general  arrangement  of  the  entire  nail  mill , 
and  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  plant,  is  shown  on 
Plate  I.  The  wire  mill,  shown  at  the  top  of  the  plate 
and  directly  across  the  track  from  the  nail  mill,  is  the 
source  of  supply  for  nail  wire  drawn  to  size.  This  is 
delivered  to  the  nail  mill  on  trucks,  drawn  by  electric 
storage  battery  tractors,  and  is  left  on  the  truck  just 
as  piled  in  the  wire  mill  until  wanted  for  the  nail 
machine.  This  practice  necessitates  a large  equipment 
of  trucks,  but  pays  well  by  eliminating  the  labor  other- 
wise required  to  unload  the  trucks  and  pile  the  wire  on 
the  nail  mill  floor. 

The  mill  is  divided  into  two  sections,  in 
order  to  keep  the  length  of  the  building  within  reason 
and  still  have  enough  room  to  install  the  required  number 
and  sizes  of  machines.  If  the  length  of  the  mill  is  such 
that  supervision  cannot  be  maintained  by  the  foreman  from 
some  centrally  located  position,  his  work  will  be  slighted. 
Therefore,  the  office  space  of  the  foreman  is  located  at 
one  end  of  the  mill,  as  shown  on  Plate  I,  from  which  point 
he  can  easily  direct  all  operations  without  an  assistant, 
thus  cutting  the  overhead  expense  of  superintendence  to 
a minimum. 

This  arrangement  also  gives  two  entrances  to 
the  nail  mill  from  the  wire  mill,  which  prevents  con- 
gestion of  traffic  between  mills  and  makes  a shorter 
average  haul  than  would  be  the  case  if  the  nail  mill  were 

. 


(69) 


. 

. 


, 


one  long1  stretch.  It  also  provides  a possible  means 
for  nail  mill  expansion,  as  shown  by  dotted  lines  at  the 
right  on  Plate  I,  without  increasing  the  average  haul  of 
wire  from  the  wire  mill  or  of  nails  to  the  cleaning 
department.  Also,  in  case  wire  is  received  from  the 
outside  for  making  nails,  a car  can  be  set  at  one  entrance 
of  the  nail  mill  without  interfering  with  the  traffic 
between  mills  at  the  other  entrance.  This  is  a feature 
worthy  of  consideration,  because  it  does  not  require 
any  adjustment  other  than  the  established  routing  of 
material  through  the  mill. 

Plates  II  and  III  show  the  plan  of  the 
nail  mill  by  sections,  each  section  drawn  to  a larger 
scale  and  more  in  detail  than  was  possible  on  Plate  I. 
Plate  IV  shows  a cross  section  of  the  nail  mill. 

The  type  of  building  selected  is  that 
known  as  "Mil  Construction".  This  type  forms  a sub- 
stantial part  of  the  original  group  of  mill  buildings 
and  was  the  determining  factor  in  its  selection.  In 
construction,  the  building  is  of  the  slow  burning  type, 
which,  in  this  open  style  of  structure,  is  most  desirable 
from  the  fire  hazard  standpoint. 

A monitor  in  the  center  of  the  buildiug, 
extending  the  entire  length  of  the  mill,  is  of  ample 
height  to  provide  good  light  and  air  throughout  the 
buildirg.  This  monitor  forms  an  excellent  means  of 
ventilation,  through  the  sash  along  both  sides. 


( 70) 


' 

, 


. 

, 


The  roof  is  flat  with  a 5-ply,  built-up-gravel 
covering  and  supported  on  3"  center-matched  planks. 

The  joints  of  the  planks  are  broken  over  the  rafters, 
which  are  8"xl6",  laid  on  8- ft  centers,  and  form  a sub- 
stantial support  for  the  3"  plank  roof  and  also  for 
shaft  hangers  which  are  lagscrewed  to  them. 

With  the  spacing  of  8-ft  center  to  center  of 
the  shaft  hangers,  a 5 h.p.  drive  can  be  installed 
anywhere  on  the  3"  shaft  without  danger  of  deflecting 
it  in  the  least.  This  fact  determined  the  adoption  of 
a 3"  line  shaft  for  the  machine  drive. 

The  floor  is  1-1/16",  end-matched,  factory  grade 
hard  maple,  laid  on  and  at  right  angles  to  the  plank  of 
a 3"  creosoted  sub-floor,  which  is  continuous  under  the 
runways  and  the  maple.  The  3”  plank  is  insulated  from 
any  moisture  from  the  earth  by  a 1"  cushion  of  sand, 
which  is  thoroughly  tarred  and  compacted  while  hot  and 
laid  on  a 3"  foundation  of  either  cement  or  tar  concrete  - 
preferably  the  former.  If  carefully  laid,  this  floor  is 
durable  and  stands  up  well  under  heavy  trucking.  A poor 
floor  should  not  be  tolerated.  It  occasions  loss  of 
time  in  moving  material  and  is  often  the  cause  of  ac- 
cidents to  employes,  because  of  the  occurrence  of  badly 
rotted  places. 

The  truckways  are  formed  of  1"  cast  iron  plates, 

4 by  6- ft  in  size,  and  weighing  about  950$.  The  surface 
is  crossha tched  to  prevent  slipping.  There  are  two 


( 71) 


- 


- 


- 


objections  to  the  use  of  these  plates.  First,  they 
become  very  slippery,  making  them  difficult  to  walk 
upon,  and  thus  are  the  cause  of  some  accidents: 
second,  they  are  constantly  subjected  to  heavy  trucking 
which  seems  to  cause  the  upper  side  to  elongate  and  the 
plates  soon  bow  up  in  the  middle.  These  objections  are 
hard  to  overcome  and  steel  plates  are  subject  to  the 
same  trouble.  However,  with  the  two  defects  just  named, 
cast  iron  plates  have  proved  more  satisfactory  than 
steel  in  the  long  run  and  they  work  in  nicely  with  the 
1-1/16”  maple  used  in  the  floors. 

All  window  sash  are  of  wood  . However,  if  the 
building  were  of  more  than  one  story  and  the  question 
of  light  of  equal  importance,  the  type  of  building  could 
be  changed  to  one  supported  on  steel  framework  and  with 
lighter  sidewalls  containing  steel  sash.  This  would  make 
up  for  loss  of  light  from  the  monitor,  which  would  neces- 
sarily be  eliminated  so  far  as  the  first  floor  is  con- 
cerned. The  sash  in  the  side  walls  are  of  the  check- 
rail  type,  while  the  monitor  sash  are  single  and  center- 
pivoted.  The  center-pivoted  monitor  sash  are  far  superior 
to  the  top-hung  type,  where  ventilation  is  to  be  considered. 
The  former  permit  the  escape  of  heated  air,  which  naturally 
accumulates  in  the  top  of  the  monitor,  7/hile  the  latter 
tend  to  entrap  this  air  and  thus  retard  ventilation. 

Ventilation  is  also  greatly  improved  by  the  in- 
stallation of  a forced-draft  heating  system.  In  winter. 


(72) 


' 


, 


- 


the  air  is  tempered  by  being-  blown  through  a bank  of 
steam  heating  coils  and  then  into  the  room.  It  Is  a well 
demonstrated  fact  that  a mill  is  more  comfortable  at  a 
lower  temperature  when  heated  with  fresh  air,  than  when 
heated  with  steam  coils  alone. 

This  was  especially  noticeable  in  the  cleaning 
and  packing  room.  When  heated  by  steam  coils,  it  was 
impossible  to  keep  the  dust  down  even  with  the  windows 
open  - which  they  always  were  except  in  tine  most  severe 
winter  weather.  However,  when  properly  heated  fresh  air 
was  blown  into  the  room,  the  dust  settled  rapidly  and 
working  conditions  were  greatly  improved. 

In  a manufacturing  department,  the  arrangement 
of  3team  heating  coils  is  important.  If  carried  overhead, 
they  usually  have  a peculiar  effect  on  the  workman.  His 
head  is  too  hot,  causing  headaches,  while  his  feet  are 
too  cold  for  comfort.  An  arrangement  whereby  steam  heating 
pipes  are  carried  along  the  wall  near  the  floor,  or  the 
use  of  floor  radiators,  is  satisfactory  because  it  pro- 
duces a better  circulation  of  air  in  the  entire  room. 

The  coils,  however,  are  subject  to  frequent  repairs,  made 
necessary  by  their  being  hit  with  loaded  trucks.  This 
is  another  reason  for  the  installation  of  a blower 
system,  where  the  air  pipes  can  be  carried  overhead  and 
the  air  deflected  downward. 

(e)  HAIL  MACEIHE  DRIVES.  The  extent  of  operation 
of  a nail  mill  will  depend  upon  the  orders  received  for 


(73) 


. 


V. 


, 


nails  from  the  trade.  If  these  orders  were  always  of  such 
size  that  the  entire  output  of  the  mill  would  be  required 
to  fill  them,  the  arrangement  of  the  drive  would  be  a 
simple  matter  of  obtaining  a power  unit  large  enough  to 
drive  the  entire  mill.  However,  experience  shows  that 
orders  are  not  received  in  such  convenient  amounts  and 
there  are  times  when  only  a small  part  of  the  mill  will 
need  to  operate.  To  meet  this  condition,  a flexible 
arrangement  of  drive  and  machines  must  be  provided; 
that  is , the  machines  must  be  grouped  in  such  a way 
that  several  different  sizes  can  be  operated  at  one  time 
and  still  have  only  a part  of  the  mill  running.  This  will 
give  a small  tonnage,  but  a varied  output. 

Careful  examination  of  Plates  II  and  III,  noting 
the  various  sizes  of  machines  grouped  for  each  of  the 
four  drive  shafts  extending  the  length  of  the  mill,  will 
make  this  scheme  clear. 

The  driving  units  selected  are  electric  motors, 
as  shown.  The  power  demanded  of  each  is  such  that  no 
unusual  sizes  are  required.  They  do  not  occupy  excessive 
floor  space  and  operate  without  fumes  or  dirt.  They  re- 
quire no  regular  attendant,  except  periodic  inspection 
by  the  plant  electrician. 

(f)  CLEAIIIG  AID  PA  CHUG  BUI  L DUG  . The  cleaning 
and  racking  building,  also  the  warehouse,  are,  like  the 
nail  mill,  of  slow  burning  mill  construction  , but  with 
this  exception  - the  second  floor  of  the  cleaning  room  is 


(74) 


i 


e 


- 


of  reinforced  concrete,  supported  on  structural  steel. 

This  change  is  made  because  the  concrete  is  fireproof  in 
itself;  no  dust  filters  down  to  the  floor  below  as  it  will 
through  the  cracks  of  a board  floor;  and  no  oil  soaks 
through,  making  a dirt  catcher  of  the  ceiling  below. 

The  only  parts  of  the  building  which  are  two  stories 
high  are  the  elevator  section,  the  part  over  the  empty 
keg  storage,  and  that  over  the  tumblers.  By  making  these 
parts  two  stories  high,  the  gravity  system  of  cleaning 
nails  can  be  used,  as  expla  ined.  The  remainder  of  the 
buildings,  including  the  warehouse  for  finished  nails, 
are  of  one  story  mill  construction,  the  same  as  the  nail 
mill  proper. 

(g)  TUMBLER  DRIVES.  From  actual  tests  on  similar 
nail  tumbling  machines,  it  ha s been  found  that  from 
3 to  5 h.p.  are  required  to  start  each  tumbler  - the 
power  requirements  depending  upon  the  kind  of  nails  being 
tumbled.  After  the  tumblers  get  well  under  way,  the  power 
required  drops  materially.  As  shown  on  Plate  VI,  the 
drives  for  the  four  lines  of  tumblers  are  located  under 
the  floor  beams  and  suspended  from  them.  The  main  drive 
shafts  are  installed  for  each  group  of  tumblers,  from 
which  individual  belt  drives  are  extended  to  each  one  of 
the  tumblers  and  provided  with  a tight  and  loose  pulley 
so  that  any  tumbler  can  be  independently  shut  down. 

Each  of  the  line  shafts  is  driven  by  a 40  h.p. 
electric  motor,  which  provides  an  estimated  power 


(75) 


, 

« 


r 


, 

* 


, 


requirement  of  4 h.p.  for  each  of  the  tumblers.  In  all 
probability,  they  operate  on  less  than  that.  Any  ad- 
ditional power  required  to  start  the  tumblers  can  be 
taken  care  of  on  the  overload  capacity  of  the  motor,  which 
will  be  only  momentary.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  at  least 
one  tumbler  on  each  line  shaft  will  be  down  for  charging, 
and  that  only  one  tumbler  will  be  started  at  a time,  the 
40  h.p.  motor  will  provide  ample  power. 

The  power  for  operating  the  nail  keg  shaker  for 
packing  is  furnished  by  the  same  motor.  Only  about  1 h.p. 
is  required  for  this  work  and,  while  the  shaker  is  in 
operation,  the  corresponding  tumbler,  which  has  just  been 
emptied,  is  down  for  charging;  hence,  no  overload  is  put 
on  the  motor  in  thus  operating  the  shaker. 

(h)  SAWDUST  STORAGE.  To  meet  the  requirements 
for  sawdust,  used  in  cleaning,  a storage  bin  has  been 
provided  on  the  second  floor  of  the  cleaning  department 
capable  of  holding  two  carloads  of  sav/dust,  as  shown  on 
Plate  V.  This  quantity  is  sufficient  to  cover  the  require- 
ments of  the  nail  mill  for  a period  of  six  weeks.  Since 
the  sawdust  is  used  on  the  second  floor,  this  is  the 
logical  place  to  store  it. 

For  the  purpose  of  unloading  sawdust  from  the  car 
and  elevating  it,  a direct-connected,  electric  motor 
driven  blower,  having  a 20”  suction  pipe,  is  mounted  on 
the  ground  floor  ard.  connected  to  the  storage  bin  by  a 
20"  blower  pipe,  which  extends  to  a centrifugal  dust  col- 
lector on  the  roof  over  the  sawdust  bin.  From  here. 


• - 


, 


- 


the  sawdust  drops  to  the  storage  bin  below.  Care  should 
be  taken  not  to  mount  the  fan  where  a lift  must  be  made 
by  the  suction  end  of  the  blower  system. 

A pipe  smaller  than  aoout  18"  in  diameter,  with 
corresponding  blower,  is  not  satisfactory.  The  carrying 
capacity  of  such  an  air  system  is  about  25 % of  the  volume 
handled  by  the  blower.  Since  the  sawdust  is  received  in 
cars  and  handled  in  the  car  to  the  suction  end  of  the 
pipe,  in  scoop  shovels  or  coke  forks,  a pipe  smaller  than 
18"  is  overloaded  and  soon  stops  up. 

(i)  HAIL  WAREHOUSE.  Ho  recommendation  is  made 
as  to  the  logical  size  of  the  warehouse  for  finished  nail3. 
As  stated  before,  these  dimensions  are  best  determined 
by  the  policy  of  the  manufacturer  as  to  the  size  of  the 
finished  stock  to  be  carried.  The  warehouse  shown  on 
Hate  I will  hold  about  twenty-five  carloads  of  nails. 

A cross  section  of  the  warehouse  is  shown  on 
Plate  IV.  It  is  practically  the  same  type  of  building 
as  the  nail  mill,  except  that  there  are  no  side  windows. 

The  tar  concrete  sub-floor  keeps  the  nails  dry  and  thus 
prevents  rust.  A covered  loading  platform  extends  on 
each  side  of  the  warehouse,  as  shown  on  Plate  I.  This 
permits  the  loading  of  several  cars  with  a minimum  of 
trackways  on  the  inside  of  the  building,  leading  to  the 
cars,  and  the  cover  affords  protection  to  both  nail  stock 
and  employes  during  stormy  weather. 

X77) 


* 

•• 


I 


W ire  Mill 


3£4£t 


TUflCK- 

Gieneral  Plan  Nail  Department 

<73) 


6 calc- 1 "--AO'-d' 

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(74) 


PLATL  n 


Plan  oj  Sect  ion  0}  Nail  Mill 


. 


See  Plate  II 


(80) 


PLATE.  HI 


* 

' 


. 


Sawdust  Slower 


( sz ) 


PLATE.  Y 


I 


I hi  ; 0 ! rf 


* ; 


Figure  II 

National  Nail  Forming  Mechanism 


(85) 


* 


Figure  IV 

National  Radius  Links 
(87) 


